India-Pakistan: Bangladesh Resists Islamic Radicalism

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Strategy Page:

November 9, 2016:

 

In Bangladesh police have arrested 53 suspects in the October 30th mob violence against Hindus in eastern Bangladesh (Brahmanbaria). This began when some local Moslems decided a Facebook post by local Hindus was disrespectful of Islam and deserved punishment. That led to a mob of Islamic radicals attacking a Hindu neighborhood and destroying or damaging over a dozen Hindu temples and injuring at least a hundred Hindus. The reaction to that anti-Hindu violence was even greater (but much less violent) with large groups of Hindus and Moslems demanding that all those involved in these attacks be arrested and prosecuted.

 

Islamic terrorists are very much a tiny minority in Bangladesh and a very unpopular one at that. The current outbreak of Islamic terrorism reached a peak with the July 1st attack on a popular café in Dhaka that left 20 dead (including 17 foreigners). The local Islamic terrorists have been on the run ever since. Last month police raids left eleven, most of them members of JMB (Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh). While ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) took credit for the July 1 attack those who carried it out belonged to JMB, which has been around since 1998 and wants to turn Bangladesh into a religious dictatorship. JMB turned to violence in 2005 and has been at war with the government ever since.

 

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Bangladesh also blames Pakistan for supporting Islamic terrorism within Bangladesh. This goes back to a 1971 uprising in Bangladesh (then part of Pakistan as “East Pakistan”) that led to a war between Pakistan and India. Many Pakistani military leaders see this 1971 loss as a major reason for Pakistani obsession with India. Not only was the Pakistani army decisively defeated in 1971, but the Pakistan lost much territory (which actively sought to secede and became Bangladesh). Former Pakistani military commander and dictator (via another coup) Pervez Musharraf admitted in late 2014 that he started the 1999 Kargil border war with India as another attempt to avenge the defeat (and loss of Bangladesh) in 1971. Pakistani officers (and many other Pakistanis) have always attributed the loss of Bangladesh to an Indian conspiracy with traitorous politicians in Bangladesh (that used to be called East Pakistan). Bangladesh calls that conspiracy theory absurd and that the real reason for the rebellion was corruption and incompetent government imposed by troops from “West Pakistan” (which after 1971 was all that remained of pre-1971 Pakistan).

 

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[Valin]

Bangladesh Battles Islamist Terror and Ethnic Cleansing
Austin Bay
November 15, 2016

Impoverished, predominantly Muslim and below-media-radar Bangladesh continues to wage a careful war on militant Islamist terrorists. This is good news. Bangladesh is the world's eighth most populous country, with around 168 million people.

Unfortunately, the latest news begins with an act of calculated Islamist terror that also had a greed-driven criminal angle. Beginning October 30, militant Islamists conducted a series of attacks on a Hindu neighborhood in the Nasirnagar sub-district (eastern Bangladesh). The attacks injured at least 100 Bangladeshi Hindus (150 according to one report) and damaged 17 Hindu shrines and temples. The attackers looted shrines and businesses. They also looted the homes of at least 100 Hindu families. The Islamists justified their attacks as retribution for outrageous religious sacrilege. They accused a Hindu from the brutalized community of making a comment on social media disrespecting the Great Mosque of Mecca, a venerated Islamic holy site.

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The militant Islamist attacks and looting spurred outrage throughout Bangladesh -- in Muslim and as well as Hindu and Buddhist communities. Political and civic groups demanded the government quickly investigate the crime and then arrest and prosecute the perpetrators. By November 6, national police had arrested 53 people allegedly involved in the attacks and theft. Authorities indicate more arrests could occur.

An initial investigation by Bangladesh's National Human Rights Commission found evidence that the riot and attacks were a "pre-planned conspiracy." In other words, forget the Islamists' faux outrage and venting over a snarky internet comment. The attacks on Hindus were pre-planned, and militant leaders were seeking an excuse to launch a communal war.

 

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The attacks and theft by the Islamist militants were criminal acts. Local police malfeasance was inexcusable. However, the national government in this overwhelmingly Muslim nation didn't ignore the wrongs. It responded appropriately. That's no surprise. StrategyPage.com recently reported "Islamic terrorists are very much a tiny minority in Bangladesh and a very unpopular one at that." Though Islamic terrorist-related murders in 2016 are likely to triple the 42 registered in 2015, StrategyPage concluded that long-term trends demonstrate Islamist terrorism has "a difficult time getting a foothold in Bangladesh."

 

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