Bangladesh's denial of Islamic State activity leaves India with concerns

Denials by Bangladesh government notwithstanding, intelligence agencies in India strongly suspect that the country has become the next battleground for Islamist terror groups. Indian security experts believe that with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State under attack in Afghanistan/Pakistan area, terror groups have decided to focus on Bangladesh by joining hands with local militant groups.

After a spate of killings of Hindus, Christians, secularists and a gay activist the latest to be threatened is the head of Rama Krishna Mission in Dhaka. At India’s request Bangladesh has provided security cover to the Mission head who has been warned that there is no place for Hindus in an Islamic country.

The Al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) was formed in 2014 and Islamic State announced its arrival in Bangladesh in April 2016. In Bangladesh Ansar ul Islam is the Bangladesh division of Al-Qaeda.

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With Bangladesh as a base they plan to target India and also focus on Myanmar.

Denying the existence of IS in Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has, however, put the blame for such attacks on local militants and political opponents. She has vowed to tackle them but her assessment is viewed with scepticism in New Delhi and many western capitals.

[caption id=“attachment_2738726” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. PTI[/caption]

On a visit to Dhaka last month the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal, was quoted as having spoken of Bangladesh terrorist groups, linking them with Al-Qaeda and IS.

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In over one year the war crimes tribunal set up by the Awami League government convicted several people including leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami who have been hanged for mass murders of 1970s. Their convictions further fuelled opposition to Sheikh Hasina and her government.

Assessment by experts show that growing violence and killings of Hindus, Christians, secular bloggers, gays and missionaries is different from the political violence that Bangladesh has known for decades.

Bangladesh’s deeply divided politics controlled by two women — Awami League of Sheikh Hasina and BNP of Khaleda Zia – has seen violence become a part of its landscape. Political vendetta has often taken the form of gruesome killings but new attacks belong to a new category of violence.

Experts argue that the nature and scale of these violent attacks are different. The Bangladesh government remains in denial mode asserting that Islamic State has no presence in the country.

On 12 June, newspaper Dhaka Tribune quoted Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal as having said that “there are a few local homegrown militant groups but we have never found any kind of IS activity here,” he said.

The minister said the propaganda about IS’ presence in Bangladesh was “nothing but a conspiracy established by a group in support of some foreign countries.”

Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque echoed the home minister. He claimed to have settled down around 80 percent militant cases that happened in the past couple of years and none arrested in connection with those cases have admitted having involvement with the IS or any other group.

“In some incidents, especially in Satkania or Chittagong communal violence, we arrested a number of accused and all of them later confessed that all these activities were done at the directive of some top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir,” added the police chief in the newspaper report.

Over 30 people have been killed in last one year with 10 chopped to death with machettes and knives. Most of the killers riding on ‘mobikes’ disappear with government agencies quite clueless about their identity.

Over 5,000 people have been arrested in a crackdown that prime minister Sheikh Hasina has claimed would see security agencies “catch every killer.”

Indian authorities, however, are alarmed by jihadist literature that is in circulation. In April the English-magazine of Islamic State, Dābiq, carried an interview with the terror outfit’s Bangladesh head named Shaykh Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif.

Asked to explain the importance of Bangladesh which they call ‘Bengal’ he pinpointed its importance to its “strategic geographic position” that would “facilitate performing guerilla attacks inside India simultaneously from both sides and facilitate creating a condition of tawahhush in India…” In Arabic the word, ‘tawahhush’ means chaos.

Security experts told Firstpost that the interview speaks of Islamic State’s intent to target Hindus, Christians, Shias, missionaries and Muslim sects like Qadianis. Published in several languages including English, Dābiq is the official magazine of Islamic State.

Last week, Dhaka Tribune quoted a leading geopolitical intelligence and consulting firm, Stratfor, that the “biggest impediments” to the Islamic State’s expansion in Bangladesh will be al-Qaeda’s branch in the Indian subcontinent and its allies.

But, there is no evidence to show that these two outfits that are competing in Iraq and Syria are at loggerheads in Bangladesh.

The Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had announced two years ago a plan for South Asia where he called upon the people of Bangladesh to “launch a massive public uprising (intifada) in defense of Islam against the enemies of Islam.”

In recent months Singapore deported 25 workers for being “radicalised” and eight were detained for planning terror strikes.

These pointers do not seem to have perturbed the Bangladesh government as it continues to blame Jamaat and local militant groups.

However, India, seriously concerned by developments in the neighbouring country sees growing threats and killing of Hindus as a bad omen.