Peace Corps' withdrawal

THE government appears to have been dismayed by the pulling out of the US Peace Corps on grounds of insecurity. But this is probably a transient move and the Peace Corps is likely to return soon after a more favourable evaluation of the situation in Bangladesh. This is not to say that the US administration underestimates the very commendable efforts made recently by our security agencies, specially by RAB, to arrest most of the leading persons of the terror organisation, JMB. Only concern remains about the trouble making potential of remnants of JMB units.

It has been reported that the top leaders of the JMB-- before their arrests --thought that the crackdown against them was mainly due to the insistence of Western countries. It did not figure in their calculations how deadly a security threat they posed to the country and its people in general. Thus, out of the misconception that Western countries are behind the countrywide massive hunt for them, the JMB leaders reportedly directed their remaining free operators not only to carry out revenge attacks against their captors but also against Western targets in Bangladesh. According to a report in a leading daily, the JMB supremo Shaikh Rahman told his interrogators that before his surrender he contacted JMB operators who are at large and directed them to take retaliatory measures. Three of the Majlis-e-Sura members of the JMB have not been caught and one of them, Salahuddin, is thought to be reorganising the clandestine organisation afresh and achieving considerable success so far. From the interrogations of Shaikh Rahman and others it could be learnt that JMB still has many workers including bomb makers and firearms users in each of the country’s 64 districts and they have been ordered to launch attacks, particularly on the occasion of the March 26 Independence Day and also against Western targets. Thus, there is no reason to be complacent about the terror networks having been subdued and no reason also to misunderstand or feel disgruntled by the withdrawal of the Peace Corps. For the threat from the JMB remains still a formidable one and needs to be responded to with undiminished enthusiasm by our security agencies.

The US Security agencies have not been asked to investigate into the terror incidents in Bangladesh. But they have done so on their own and could find out that a substantial threat remains from the abilities of the remaining JMB cadres to attack different targets in the country. It is learnt that the US agencies have also conveyed their findings to the government.

Therefore, there is no reason to take the Peace Corps' withdrawal emotionally as a sort of expression of no confidence in the security situation. It should be taken for what it is and no misconception should be there about it. Governments of Western countries profusely praised the Bangladesh government for its moves against the JMB, so far. But there are reasons to fear that JMB remnants would go on a violence spree to protest the arrest of their top leaders. It is very necessary that our security agencies should not only deter successfully any such attempt but also carry to a successful completion their tasks of totally eradicating terror networks from the country.