BANGLADESH: WAVE OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS
– new terror tactic increases risk to threatened Christian leaders,
institutions and NGOs.
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More than 30 years ago, Bangladesh fought a Liberation War for the
right to be independent of Pakistan, and secular. The war cost the
Bangladeshis somewhere between 500,000 and three million lives.
Today, Islamic militants with al Qaeda training and links are
engaged in a violent and deadly campaign to force Bangladesh to
submit to Sharia law.
Islamic zeal and radicalisation have skyrocketed in Bangladesh since
October 2001 causing local persecution of Christians to escalate in
frequency and severity. Now organised Islamic terror threatens to
destabilise the nation and the wider region. Of course it will also
seriously impact the Church. Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
is presently targeting Bangladesh’s secular courts and judges, and
threatening to continue until Sharia is implemented. But JMB has
also declared that it will target NGOs and non-Muslim religious
figures and institutions engaged in “anti-Islamic activities”. It is
reported that Bangladesh has some 172 terror training camps
operating on its soil, and that JMB has a 2,000-strong suicide squad
prepared for martyrdom operations.
The pro-Islamic Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), elected in
October 2001 to rule in coalition with some very radical Islamist
groups, has difficulty facing and dealing with these threats. It
has used Western law and democracy for its own advantage, but now
the popularist Islamist puppy it has fostered and nurtured has
matured, is exerting its independence, and is starting to bite.
Unless the government gets serious about replacing radical madrassas
with real and positive education, closing terror training camps, and
promoting secularism, tolerance and democracy, then Bangladesh will
develop into a Islamic terror hub and jihad launching pad. Nothing
grows, spreads and wreaks havoc like a disease that is not
acknowledged and is left untreated.
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WAVE OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS
On Tuesday 29 November, suicide bombers from Jama’atul Mujahideen
Bangladesh (JMB) ? also known as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JuM) ?
fatally struck law courts in two Bangladeshi cities, killing seven.
Around 60 were wounded, 21 of them seriously. The death toll has
since risen to ten. (Link 1)
The first bombing took place at 9:05am in Bangladesh’s second
largest city, the port city of Chittagong. In response to terror
threats, police had been posted at the entrance of the court and
were checking all visitors. Just before he was to be intercepted at
the police checkpoint, the bomber took an explosive device out of
his bag and threw it at the officers. He then detonated another
explosive device strapped to his leg. The two policemen were killed.
The bomber, who survived but lost both his legs and his right hand,
was identified as Abul Bashar (19). He reportedly told Agence
France-Presse (AFP), “I attacked the Chittagong court by the order
of Allah. I did not do any wrong in carrying out the suicidal
attack.” A report by the Bangladesh Independent online news said
police had found a JMB leaflet in his pocket. According to
Chittagong police official Mohammad Majedul Huq, it was handwritten
and warned police, judges and lawyers “to stop upholding man-made
laws which go against Islam”. At least 16 others were injured; 13
of them were police. Abul Bashar has since died from his injuries in
Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
The second bombing took place in Gazipur at 9:40am. The bomber
donned a lawyer’s black gown and walked right past police security
into the bar library where he detonated his bomb. Three people in
the library died immediately and four others died from their wounds
soon after in hospital in Dhaka. The suicide bomber’s body was found
with wires and bomb parts still strapped to it.
At around 10am on Thursday 1 December, as lawyers were staging a
demonstration in Gazipur, a bomb exploded near the police checkpoint
outside the chief government administrator’s office. Two were killed
and 30 were injured, five critically. One of the dead was a
policeman, the other is believed to be the suicide bomber. According
to Kazi Fazle Rabbi, Gazipur district commissioner, “The suspected
bomber … disguised himself as a tea vendor. One of his flasks
exploded when police stopped him for checking.” (Link 2)
ESCALATION OF TERROR
On 17 August, JMB (JuM) orchestrated a nation-wide terror attack,
setting off nearly 500 small improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
virtually simultaneously in 63 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts. While
the devices did not contain shrapnel, they did result in three
deaths and left more than 150 injured. Pamphlets found near many of
the explosive devices demanded the expulsion of foreign NGOs
“engaged in anti-Islamic activities in Muslim countries”. (Stratfor
Terrorism Brief, 23 November 2005)
The carnage from the August bombing campaign was minimal but the
message was loud and clear. As noted by Stratfor, the August bombing
campaign “demonstrates that JuM has a widespread presence, robust
logistics and sophisticated command-and-control capabilities”.
After this attack JMB (JuM) declared, “Everybody is the enemy of
Islam who wants to launch democracy as an institutional form.
Therefore we invite the ruling party and also the opposition to
initiate the rule of Islam within a short time in Bangladesh.”
On 22 August, Bangladesh’s leading national Bengali daily newspaper
reported that the Intelligence Department had informed the
government that Islamic militants are planning to attack the largest
non-Muslim religious centres in Dhaka. They were also threatening to
kill local and foreign non-Muslim leaders, missionaries, priests,
humanitarian workers and anyone else preaching religion other than
Islam. Christianity was to be particularly targeted for the purpose
of discrediting the government of Bangladesh in the West. (See WEA
RLC report: link 3)
On 3 October, larger bombs exploded in three district courts outside
Dhaka, killing two people and wounding more than a dozen. Then on 14
November two senior Assistant Judges of Jhalakathi District Judges
Court were assassinated on their way to work. Their microbus stopped
outside the government staff quarters to pick up another judge. The
assassin, identified as Mamun, a JMB militant, approached the
microbus with the pretext of showing papers to the judges. He then
shoved a package into the microbus which immediately exploded. The
assassin, who survived with serious leg wounds, was immediately
arrested. He was found to have some 24 JMB leaflets, and a live bomb
fastened to his body. Presumably the assassin intended to escape,
with the body-bomb to be used only in the case of capture. His
injuries however probably prevented him detonating the body-bomb
before his arrest. His willingness to explode himself and thus
become a “martyr” was evidence of a shocking new tactic and
ideological shift.
In their 23 November Terrorism Brief, Stratfor Intelligence
reported, “According to a Nov. 22 report in the Bangladeshi
English-language Daily Star newspaper, the JuM’s (JMBs) policymaking
body — Majlis-e-Shura — recently ordered its bomb and suicide
squad members to fight their opposition to the death and to continue
strik
ing government offices and courts.” Stratfor notes, “JuM (JMB)
appears to have no problem obtaining explosives, and apparently is
actively constructing devices ? an activity normally conducted at
the end of the attack planning cycle.” And Stratfor adds, “JuM
members reportedly received training from al Qaeda in Afghanistan
and Pakistan and allegedly maintain links with that group.”
According to Reuters, Bangladeshi police report that the explosives
used in the 29 November suicide bombings are the most powerful and
highly destructive explosives used by the militants so far. Reuters
also reports, “The State Minister for Home Affairs Lutufuzzaman
Babar said earlier this month [Nov] that there were reports that the
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen had set up a 2,000-strong suicide squad.” (Link
4)
THREAT TO EMBASSIES
The British High Commission’s First Secretary in Dhaka, Mike
Stevenson, reports that Manik Hossain, a Muslim extremist
identifying himself as a member of “al-Qaeda in South Asia”, has
threatened to blow up the UK mission, along with other Western
missions. The threatening message was sent to the UK Embassy by fax
on Sunday 27 November, and signed by Manik Hossain of Faridganj”
(220km, or around 140 miles, southeast of Dhaka). Security has now
been increased around diplomatic offices in Dhaka. (Link 5)
BANGLADESH: TERROR HUB
Webindia reports that on 29 November, India’s Border Security Force
(BSF) Director General R S Mooshahary told a press conference “the
unabated mushrooming of terror camps” in Bangladesh, and the fact
that Bangladesh is becoming “a hub of infiltrators and
fundamentalist forces” threatens to destabilise the whole region.
“In the long run,” warned Gen. Mooshahary, “Bangladesh could be a
greater problem than Pakistan going by the shifting of population,
massive infiltration bids and mushrooming of terror camps… it has
become a hub of drug dealers and smugglers.”
Mooshahary claimed to have recently given Bangladesh a list of 172
terror training camps. “But their reply is the same every time,” he
complains, ” …that no such camps exists on their soil.” (Link 6)
Elizabeth Kendal
[email protected]
Links
1) BANGLADESH BOMBING TOLL RISES
30 November 2005. SBS
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=126032®ion=2
Seven killed, many injured in Bangladesh blasts
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=58404
Nine die in Bangladesh bombings
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4480408.stm
Bangladesh’s escalating extremism. 29 November 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4482320.stm
2) Two dead in court attack. 2 December 2005
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17435239-23109,00.html
3) WEA Religious Liberty News & Analysis
Militants Move to Islamise Bangladesh
By Elizabeth Kendal, 16 September 2005
http://www.worldevangelicalalliance.org/news/view.htm?id=151
4) Bangladesh explosives most powerful yet — police
30 Nov 2005. Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA129923.htm
Bombs target Bangladesh lawyers. 29 November 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/29/bangladesh.blasts.reut/index.html
5) Man threatens UK, US missions in Bangladesh ? police
28 Nov 2005. Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA97711.htm
6) Bangladesh a hub of infiltrators and fundamentalists: BSF DG
New Delhi, 29 November 2005
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=176465&cat=India
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