The New Nation - Internet Edition

Hiranmay Karlekar

A report in The Pioneer of February 26 states that Gen Moeen U Ahmed, Chief of Army Staff, Bangladesh, has requested Indian authorities not to insist on the release of Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia, leaders of the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, before the election in his country. It does not mention the Indian reply. One, however, wonders whether the General was asked if he was going to hold the election with the Ameer of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Matiur Rahman Nizami, and its Secretary-General, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, at large. The reason why they should have asked this is obvious.

The arrest of their leaders, both former Prime Ministers, and the factional warfare that has followed with the present Army-backed 'caretaker' dispensation trying to promote alternative leaders, have hobbled the Awami League and the BNP. On the other hand, JeIB and its front organisations like the Islami Chhatra Shibir, continue to thrive with their leaders at large and their huge business empire intact.

The enormous financial resources the JelB and its auxiliaries like the ICS command, account for much of their influence and muscle power. Delivering the Dr Abdul Gafur Memorial Lecture on April 21, 2005. Prof Abul Barkat of Dhaka University stated that the economic ventures established by fundamentalist Islamists organisations in Bangladesh with huge funds received from Saudi Arabia and other West Asian countries in the 1970s and the 1980s, yield a yearly net profit of Taka 1,200 crore. According to him, the fundamentalists use at least 10 per cent of this for organisational purposes like conducting regular party activities, providing pay and allowances to party workers, running military training centres and maintaining 500,000 party cadres.

As things stand, the JeIB, which controls these ventures, is going to participate in the general election, scheduled to be held before December 2008, with its leadership, organisation, cadre strength and money and muscle power intact. sans a miracle-which does not seem to be on the horizon--the BNP and the Awami League will be contesting with their hands tied behind their backs. If this tilts the playing field in JeIBs favour, so does the fact that the electoral machinery is still manned at the district and sub-district (Upazila) levels by nominees of the JeIB and the BNP planted when a coalition Government led by the two parties was in power.

The JeIB is unlikely to sweep the coming parliamentary election. It has, however, used its participation in the coalition Government led by Begum Khaleda Zia (2001-2006) to set up a string of Islamist NGOs, with State Minister for Social Welfare Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed ensuring a massive flow of funds to their coffers. The result has been a significant expansion of both its organisational infrastructure and public following. It may once again be a part of a ruling coalition that comes to power after the next election, which it would use to further expand its influence.

Thus, India has reason to be seriously concerned over the attitude of the present Caretaker Government, of which Gen Moeen U Ahmed is the principal prop, towards the JeIB. The latter is pathologically hostile to this country. Expounding its views on Bangladesh's defence, Abbas Ali Khan, who become its officiating Ameer in 1979, after the ban on it, imposed in the wake of Bangladesh's liberation, was lifted, wrote in the party's website that the "creeds and concepts of the people ruling the neighbour (sic) state (India) imbued with the lust for territorial expansion is a threat to the independence and sovereignty of the people of Bangladesh."

Abbas Ali Khan further wrote under the sub-heading 'National ideology'. Whenever any kind of aggression comes it shall come from India alone. Consequently, the psychology of the defence forces of Bangladesh must be anti-Indian. But only a negative feeling is not sufficient for developing this psychology to the spirit of highest sacrifice for the country. It is the spirit of jihad which can inspire them to sacrifice their life with the hope that they will be amply rewarded after death."

The JeLB, which collaborated with the Pakistani Army during the liberation war, and whose leaders like Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed have been identified as war criminals involved in mass murder, torture and rape, during the period, is the hub and ideological fountainhead of Islamist terrorism n Bangladesh. Leaders of all terrorist outfits in that country--Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh, Jamaat-ul-Mujaheedin Bangladesh, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Ahle Hedith Andolan Bangladesh have been alumni of either it or the ICS. Indeed, for a long time both Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed denied the very existence of the JMJB leader "Bangla Bhai", who had unleashed a campaign of torture and murder in north-western parts of Bangladesh in 2004.

Almost every recent terrorist strike in India has had a Bangladeshi hand, particularly the HUJIB's, behind it. These organisations were banned and their leaders arrested in 2005--before the present Caretaker Government grabbed power on January 11, 2007. The execution of six of their leaders on March 29, 2007, which is cited as proof of its determination to curb terrorism, followed judicial verdicts announced before it came to power. It could not have spared them without its intention being severely questioned. If anything, its preoccupation with its increasingly controversial anti-corruption drive and keeping all political activity under a lid, has severely undermined the pressure of sorts it maintains on terrorist outfits.

Besides, its policy of leaving the JelB, whose ideology is identical with that of the Taliban, alone, reminds one of Pakistan's strategy of cracking down or Al Qaeda while treating the Taliban with kid gloves. Its inaction is all the more striking given the growing demand all over Bangladesh for trying war criminals and the Election Commission's readiness to bar them from the coming election if the Government acted against them.

Before gifting legitimacy to General Ahmed, India must ensure that he closes the camps Bangladesh maintains for North-Eastern insurgents, hands over ULFA's Paresh Baruah (Anup Chetia alone is not enough), tries war criminals and curbs the JelB. It must also demand that the present regime holds the election on time and lifts the draconian restrictions on political activity and Press freedom it has imposed. It owes this to the cause of democracy.

(This write-up was published in 'the Pioneer' newspaper published from New Delhi on 27 February last).