Analysis, Side Feature, South Asia

West-fuelled “militancy” cannot be solved by Western-backed Democratic Politics – the Solution Must Come from Islam

Bangladesh witnessed a series of ‘militant attacks’ and counter ‘terrorism’ operations by security forces in March 2017 that left more than a dozen dead including children and women, and many more injured. On 17th March 2017, a suicide bomber was said to have blown himself up near a temporary camp of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Ashkona area of Dhaka. One week after on 28th March in Sylhet, in northeastern Bangladesh, another four-day siege began which ended four days after with a military commando operation.

Comment:

Though incidents of this kind are not new in Bangladesh, the escalation in violence at a time when Bangladeshi security forces proudly proclaim that they have managed to curb so-called Islamist militancy left people skeptical about the government’s evil motives instead of being shocked. Recent suicide attacks on security camps and checkpoints as well as dramatic prolonged commando operations have all raised eyebrows of the people. After the sensational commando operation in Sylhet surrounding a building that captured national and international media headlines for four days, all we got to know about the dead ‘militants’ after the siege was that there were 4 children (one of them only few weeks older), 2 women and 1 men!!! And police didn’t reveal anything more about them. Interestingly, the IS group claimed responsibility for those incidents. However, Bangladeshi police maintains that an offshoot of the banned group Jamiatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) is responsible for many of these attacks. Despite taking various measures and forming different anti-terrorism units and forces which literally turned the country into a police state, still such rise of terrorism has been forcing people to think differently from the government narratives. A big number of people even contend that these are staged to achieve wicked political objectives by national, regional and international powers.

People are questioning why before the visit of Prime Minister Hasina to India which is scheduled for 7th to 10th April (2017) to sign some military cooperation deals and MoU, we get to see the sudden rise of so-called militants. Is it to justify the deal with India as it includes military cooperation for combating ‘Islamic militancy’? It is absolutely evident that Hasina wants to bring India’s interference into our country by every means possible. Already all the major strategic sectors like power, telecom etc… are infested by Indian citizens. Now we are about to see Bangladesh’s sworn archenemy will train our military and also will supply arms and machineries to expand her (India’s) inferior arms industry. But another vital issue that should not be missed from our analysis is that whatever India and Bangladesh are doing in terms of military treaties are happening totally with the consent of USA as currently India is America’s biggest ally to attain some geopolitical objectives – one of which is to stop the rise of the second righteous Khilafah in the name of combating terrorism. In Bangladesh, a political naivety is present among a large group of people who think that whatever Hasina government is doing are according to India’s wish, totally omitting USA from the scene, whereas we need to look into the bigger picture of regional politics i.e. the said US-Indian collaboration. When Trump’s administration is cancelling out some major deals of Obama administration, it indicated clearly that it wants to carry on its strong strategic partnership with India in this region. On February 8th, 2017, the US Secretary of Defense (Gen. James Mattis) praised in a telephone conversation with his Indian counterpart (Manohar Barikar) the “tremendous progress” made by India in the “last years” and referred to the “joint cooperation between the two countries in the field of defense, “he said that the new administration is keen to “maintain the momentum and build on it.” ().

Hence, whatever the reason behind these anti-terrorist operations by state machineries, it is clear that the Islamists and opposition political parties would be more terrorized by the regime. The ruling Awami League always blame the opposition and Islamic groups for supporting and patronizing homegrown terrorists. No matter whoever is behind these attacks it is the ordinary people who are paying the price. Current manmade ruling system and western-backed democratic politics miserably failed to resolve the matter; rather secular political parties are busy in capitalizing the issue by using it as a tool for their dirty blame game. Clearly so-called ‘Islamic militancy’ in Bangladesh is a part of global phenomena created by western evil states after their naked intervention in the many of the peaceful Muslim states, and it will be naive to see it in isolation of the world politics and the power struggle between the declining secular capitalism and the growing popular demand for the Islamic Khilafah. Terrorism is a byproduct of current democratic system. So the solution must come from Islam that guarantees true accountable government and ensure peace and prosperity of the people.

 

Mohammad Kamal

Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Bangladesh