Mirsaray Upazilla (an administrative district corresponding to Korea's "eup" in the southeastern part of Bangladesh in the early morning of the 5th). The rapid response unit (RAB), Bangladesh's "counter-terrorism-anti-corruption elite unit," raided a single-story building believed to be a hideout for Islamic extremist armed forces. According to Commander Mufti Mahmoud Khan of the RAB Media Bureau, cited by the local daily The Daily Star on the 6th, two bodies were found after an hour of gunfight and explosion. These are members of the Islamic extremist organization Jamatul Mujahidin Bangladesh (JMB).
Recently, RAB's counter-terrorism raid continues day by day across Bangladesh. Operations are not limited to JMB. On the 4th, a Bangladeshi executive of Hizbut Tahrir, a global political movement organization for Muslims, was arrested in Chandagon, Chitagong. On the 6th, a member of the religious party "Jamate Islami (JeI)" was also caught in the Gaibanda district in the northwest of Langpur. They are struggling from all sides against Islamic forces of various tendencies such as JMB, Hizbutahrir, and JeI.
Bangladesh is a society with a strong tradition of Secularism, although 90% of its population is classified as Muslim. Nevertheless, since independence from Pakistan in 1971, conflicts between secularist camps and Islamic forces have always existed in conjunction with political situations.
For example, JeI, a representative of Islamic political forces, is a long-standing political partner of the current opposition Bangladeshi National Party (BNP). The BNP has embraced not only religious parties but also Islamic extremist forces according to political convenience. The fact that even such BNPs appear to be under the oppression of the Sheikh Hasina (Prime Minister) government is largely due to the ambiguous boundary between extremist crackdowns and political persecution.
In fact, it is a common point at home and abroad in Bangladesh that the Hashina government, which is a secular tendency, is heading for a "dictatorship-type secularism" that does not tolerate anyone. In an interview with Al-Jazeera English Broadcasting on August 5, Bangladeshi photographer Shaidul Alam, who criticized the current government's human rights violations, including extrapolated killing, was dragged by about 20 plainclothes police at home that night. The Awami League (the ruling party) and the BNP (the opposition party) are showing extreme confrontation ahead of the upcoming December general election.
The active penetration of global jihadi forces into Bangladesh in recent years is linked to this domestic political situation. A report published in February this year by the International Crisis Group analyzed that "the war criminal trial and the Shabag movement (the secular tendency) have become a new background for Islamists and Jihadi activities." The 'war criminal trial' mentioned by the report refers to an international criminal trial that began in 2009.
This trial is a post-conflict justice mechanism designed to punish those who mercilessly slaughtered independent groups during the 1971 Bangladesh Revolutionary War. Naturally, JeI, who served as a pro-Pakistani militia, and their political partner BNP were bound to be affected. Many of those indicted are from JeI, and there are three BNP members. However, as the trial fell far short of the level of "international trials," criticism continued that the opportunity for liquidation in the past may have eventually degenerated into the use of "static removal of Hashina." For Muslims, the trial was accepted as an "attack on Muslim identity in Bangladesh," and the secularist camp clashed demanding stronger punishment.
For example, when JeI leader Abdul Kader Molah was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 5, 2013, the Islamic camp demanded the release of Molah, while the secular camp demanded the death penalty, prompting hundreds of thousands of people to protest on a large scale. It was around this time that protesters on the latter side developed into a "worldly movement." It is called the Ghana Zagaran Manchi Movement, or the Shabag Movement named after Shabag Square in Dhaka, which was a protest site. It was around this time that a series of attacks by Islamic extremist forces against atheists and secularists began. An unprecedented brutal beheading assassination continued.
Bangladesh and the international community were shocked. Between 2013 and 2015, there were about 40 atheists, secularist advocates bloggers, LGBTQs, various minorities, and minorities who were beheaded by Islamic extremists. The assassination continued until June this year. On June 2, Shajahan Machu (57), a left-wing intellectual and operator of a publishing company called Vishaka Prakashani, died instantly in a shooting by four strange people who appeared on two motorcycles at a pharmacy in Munshiganji, a village outside Dhaka. It was the first time that guns were used to assassinate secularists.
There are two main groups of extremist organizations appearing in serial assassinations. Al-Qaida-linked organization "Ansarula al Islam" (hereinafter Ansarula) is the only one, and the other is JMB, which vowed loyalty to the Islamic State (IS). If the former is ideologically adored by Islam while targeting high-quality education such as college students, the latter is mainly filled by the Islamic religious school "Madrasa" and has a strong sectarian tendency. This difference is why Ansarula focuses on the individual assassination of the prophet Muhammad, while JMB puts various minority groups themselves on the attack list.
However, the two organizations do not show competitive or mutually hostile tendencies. The boundaries of the organization's composition are even ambiguous. On July 1, 2016, several analyses poured out over who was responsible for the terrorist attack at the "Holly Artizan Bakery Cafe," a luxury cafe in the diplomat district of the capital Dhaka. In the end, the "joint" between the two organizations was expected to be the most probable scenario. It is reasonable to actively respond to the domestic political situation where Islam seems to be "suppressed" and see extremism in Bangladesh, which is regenerated and revived under the nourishment of global jihadism prosperity, is in a "joint" relationship, at least so far. The possible connection between extremist organizations and Islamic political forces can have a greater synergy effect.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday (10th), the Dhaka court ruled highly volatile on a political terror 14 years ago. Earlier on August 21, 2004, the assembly hall of the then opposition Awami League was in chaos due to a series of grenades attacks. Hashina, who was the target of the assassination, saved her life, but 24 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Investigations that followed revealed that the attack was a "joint terrorist attack between politicians and extremists" conspired by high-ranking officials in the "BNP-JeI coalition government" at the time and carried out by Kharkatul Jihad, an Islamic extremist organization.
The court sentenced the death penalty to 19 defendants and sentenced the other 19 to life imprisonment. The most eye-catching person was Tariq Lahman, the son of BNP President Khaleda (imprisoned for corruption) and acting on behalf of his mother. He was also sentenced to life in prison. The December general election, which is just around the corner, is likely to be held on the sole stage of the Awami League with the BNP neutralized. After the 2014 general election, when JeI was banned from running and boycotted by the BNP, the nightmare of the year, which led to the most serious violence in Bangladesh's history, is striking again.
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