Anand Kumar

It is no secret that Pakistan has a dual approach to terrorism. While it takes certain terror groups as threat to Pakistani state and wants to uproot them, at the same time it also wants to use another set of terror groups as strategic asset against its next door neighbor India. Under this strategy it launched Zarb-e-Azb against Teherik-e-Taliban considered a threat to Pakistan but keeps nurturing Taliban active in Afghanistan. It also nurtures Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and other similar groups which have chosen India as their target. The Indian state seems to be fighting a continuous battle against the Pakistan sponsored terror groups. However, Pakistan despite its nefarious acts does not seem to be succeeding in its design. To cause further trouble to India, Pakistan is now trying to open another front using terror groups liked by Pakistani state. This new front is from the side of Bangladesh, using Bangladeshi extremists as insurgency in northeast India is almost dead.

Pakistan has been uncomfortable with the Sheikh Hasina government after she took over power in January 2009. This discomfort was for two reasons. First it disrupted the cozy relationship with Bangladesh that it had built during the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – Jamaat regime as Sheikh Hasina decided to go after the terrorist groups of all variety. She acted against Islamists groups of Bangladesh as well as against groups like Let and JeM who were Pakistani but were trying to develop base in Bangladesh or at least link with the Bangladeshi terror groups. She also acted against northeast insurgents. In fact, her actions resulted in giving death blow to groups like United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).

Secondly, she was also disliked by Pakistan because she showed her desire to go for war crime trials and wanted to prosecute Jamaat-e-Islami leaders. The Jamaat-e-Islami had supported Pakistan during the Liberation War and still remains the most important constituency for Pakistan in Bangladesh. Though the BNP has also been pro-Pakistan in the past, it is somewhat difficult for the party under present circumstances to be as brazen as Jamaat has been all along. What was worse for Pakistan, Sheikh Hasina also wanted to try some of the Pakistan army men who were engaged in brutality against the Bangladeshi people during the Liberation War.

To stop Sheikh Hasina from proceeding ahead with war crime trials, then Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari had sent his special envoy Zia Ispahani to meet her. In the meeting Sheikh Hasina however expressed her determination to complete the war crime trials which was a long-standing issue in liberated Bangladesh. After that Zia Ispahani met Khaleda Zia. Interestingly, immediately after his return there was mutiny in the para-military force Bangladesh Rifle (BDR). This mutiny is known for the brutal killings of BDR officers who were mostly from the Bangladesh army and reminded people of the brutality of Pakistani armed forces during the liberation war. It was widely believed in Bangladesh that Pakistan was behind the BDR mutiny which nearly swept away the Sheikh Hasina government.

Both BNP and Jamaat have been friendly to Pakistan and in fact during the rule of the BNP led four-party regime (2001-06) the Pakistani High Commission in Bangladesh acted as a base for the ISI. Though ISI activities in Bangladesh are still intact to a great extent, ISI does not enjoy the same freedom. Moreover, both the BNP and Jamaat have been under pressure in recent time. Top BNP leaders are being prosecuted for corruption or inciting violence. Its senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman who is also political heir to Khaleda Zia is in London facing several charges. Most of the top leaders of Jamaat were prosecuted for war crimes and hanged. With BNP and Jamaat under pressure, it is no surprise that Pakistan would have lent a hand in recent terror attacks in Bangladesh including the most sensational one that took place in a Dhaka café.

The hanging of Jamaat leaders has led to a considerable decline in Bangladesh – Pakistan relationship. Pakistan has invariably criticized every such hanging. In Bangladesh this kind of Pakistani criticism was seen as interference in the internal affairs. It also indicated that Pakistan has still not reconciled to liberation of Bangladesh. Both sides lodged complaint with High Commissioners of each other. Bangladesh even considered withdrawing its High Commissioner from Pakistan.

In Bangladesh, a Pakistani female diplomat was seen liaising with Bangladeshi terrorist groups. The role of the female diplomat became very controversial and she had to be withdrawn once her identity became public. It is hardly surprising that Pakistan has used the services of Bangladeshi extremist groups for recent terror attacks in that country. After the first Afghan War (1979-89) against the Soviet Union nearly 2000 battle hardened Bangladeshis had returned to their country. They had formed terrorist organizations like HUJI and JMB. These groups indulged in a series of terrorist attacks from 1999-2005. Militant activity of the JMB declined considerably after its top leadership was hanged by the caretaker government in 2007. Under pressure, actually a number of JMB cadres moved to Indian side of Bengal. Some of these cadres are also probably behind the recent revival of JMB in Bangladesh.

According to Hasanul Huq Inu, information minister of Bangladesh, in another wave recently 8000 Bangladeshis trained in camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan have returned to Bangladesh. One can well imagine what kind of havoc these trained militants are going to cause to Bangladesh who are likely to share a close relationship with the ISI and the terror groups it supports within Pakistan.

The displeasure of Pakistan with a secular and progressive regime in Bangladesh is quite obvious. In these circumstances it would not be surprising that Pakistan would try to create political instability in Bangladesh. And the best way to do it is through the Islamist extremist groups who now claim to be aligned to al-Qaeda and ISIS. Pakistan can also subsequently use these terror groups to launch terror attacks against India without being blamed. The terror groups like Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) have shown intention to attack India and Myanmar from Bangladesh. Pakistan would be only too happy to use Bangladeshi terror groups for the strategic advantage on India’s eastern border.

The article was originally published in the South Asia Monitor.

• Published: 18 July, 2016

The sensational attack in the Dhaka café may have been intended to either cause international opinion to put pressure on the Hasina government to go for early election or incite the Army to take over political power.

• Published: July 08, 2016
• IDSA Comments

A comprehensive approach is needed to deal with the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh. All the affected states would have to adopt a uniform policy, in the absence of which any amount of effort is bound to deliver only partial results.

• Published: June 24, 2016
• IDSA Comments

The coming to power of a democratic government in Myanmar has not only altered the political situation within but has also provided an opportunity to improve relations with Bangladesh.

• Published: May 18, 2016
• IDSA Comments

The war crime trials in Bangladesh are the unfinished agenda of the Liberation War of the Bangladeshi people who had won their liberation from Pakistan on 16 December 1971. The country is now trying to complete this by bringing some of the worst-grade war criminals to justice. In this endeavour it has already hanged four war criminals while the trials are underway for some others. These war criminals had sided with the raiding Pakistani forces in 1971 and committed extreme atrocities on Bengali people. Unfortunately, even after decades Pakistan appears remorseless for these crimes committed by its army and its cohorts against the Bangladeshi people.

The non-punishment of war criminals for long became a major point of concern within the independent Bangladesh. What was worse is that in the interregnum, the war criminals tried to get political legitimacy and gathered strength because of the suitable political conditions in the country. On 15th August 1975 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was murdered by the anti-liberation forces present within the Bangladeshi army. This was a turning point in the history of Bangladesh. The subsequent military and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) regimes tried to rehabilitate Islamists and anti-Liberation forces predominantly represented by Jamaat-e-Islami.

This changed political situation afforded Pakistan an opportunity to influence Bangladesh politically. Both Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP adopted a pro-Pakistani attitude. This was an insult to the Mukti-Jodhas or Bangladeshi freedom fighters who had sacrificed their life to win liberation for the country. Though occasional voices were heard in the country to prosecute war criminals, they were not heeded to.

This delay in trial of war criminals allowed them not only to get political legitimacy but also increase their influence in the Bangladeshi society. Organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami later became hand in glove with various terrorist organisations. Jamaat participated in democratic elections but wanted to bring Sharia rule in the country. This endangered democracy in Bangladesh. The people allied with them launched deadly attack on Sheikh Hasina when she was addressing a rally in Dhaka in August 2004. All these developments motivated Hasina to complete the war crime trials which had been pending for a long time.

It is hardly surprising that when Hasina came to power in 2009 the trial of war criminals was on top of her agenda. However, this was not liked by Pakistan. This became clear when Zia Ispahani, the special envoy of then Pakistan president, Asif Ali Zardari, visited Dhaka to request Hasina not to reopen the war criminals’ case. Ispahani conveyed the message that any attempt to reopen these cases would adversely affect relations between the two countries. Ispahani also met Begum Khaleda Zia. Hasina, however, did not accept his warning kind of request.

Pakistan not only disliked Hasina’s idea of prosecuting war criminals, it is widely believed that at the instance of Zia Ispahani and the ISI, a mutiny took place in the border guarding force of the Bangladesh. The mutiny in the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) nearly swept away the Sheikh Hasina government. Hasina could control the situation only by showing great courage.

The BDR mutiny failed in toppling Hasina government but it managed to delay the start of war crime trials. The government of Bangladesh however, now seems determined to complete it. This has caused discomfort to Pakistan, whose army too was involved in war crime. Moreover, it sees people prosecuted by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) as those who could have been used to further its strategic interests in that country.

This has made Pakistan criticise the ICT verdicts. It criticised when Abdul Qader Molla was hanged. It has expressed its “deep concern and anguish” over the capital punishments of Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. Both convicts were once ministers in the BNP led government in Bangladesh. Chowdhury was also the political advisor of Khaleda. These two individuals collaborated in 1971 with Pakistan in killing hundreds of Hindus and committed other atrocities over the local population.

Pakistan however still denies that its army committed any war crime in Bangladesh. Pakistan is mentioning the 1974 tripartite agreement as the bedrock of relations between the two countries. It says that as part of the agreement, the government of Bangladesh had decided not to proceed with the trials as an act of clemency. On the contrary, the feeling in Bangladesh is that the 195 Pakistani soldiers against whom Bangladesh had collected specific evidences of genocide can still be tried in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It is believed that the country signed the 1974 agreement because Pakistan held 203 Bangladeshi officials hostage for its 195 officers of very high ranks. Moreover, “clemency” has no bearing on the trial of those who committed genocide as per the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report of 2009 titled “International Law and United Nations Policy on Amnesty.”

Interestingly, International organisations like Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and even the UN have taken queer stand on the implementation of war crime verdicts. They say that the trial procedure was flawed. They also criticised the practice of hanging of criminals in general. Strangely, the same organisations have nothing to say in the case of Pakistan where the hanging is happening more frequently of those people whom the Pakistani state especially its military considers dangerous. These people are being tried in military courts and then hanged. Both Pakistan and the US are among the top ranking nations where hangings take place. Unfortunately, these international organisations have chosen to remain quiet in those cases.

The Bangladesh government however finds the Pakistani reaction as unacceptable and nothing less than brazen interference in its internal matters. It has advised Pakistan not to make unfounded comments about the independent judiciary of a sovereign country. The reaction of Pakistan has enraged the government of Bangladesh. It has revived their old wounds. The people in Bangladesh now feel that the Pakistani concern for war criminals once again proves beyond doubt their direct involvement in mass atrocities committed during the war.

The Sheikh Hasina government has shown enormous courage in going ahead with the war crime trials in the face of pressure from the western powers and international human rights groups. India has also assured Bangladesh that it will support the country in case the issue is raised at any global forum. The successful completion of war crime trials would prove to be an important chapter in the history of Bangladesh. It will give justice to millions of people who had suffered at the hands of Pakistan army and their cohorts in Bangladesh known as Razakars. By criticising it, Pakistan has only exposed itself that it remains remorseless and still carries over the bigotry and racism that brought about the cataclysmic events of 1971.

This article was originally published in South Asia Monitor.

• Published: 25 December, 2015

Though terror acts have increased, not many believe that they have been carried out by the dreaded group.

The Islamic State (IS) which has emerged as a major terror group in Iraq and Syria, is now trying to expand its influence in countries like Bangladesh. It has released a map of areas which it thinks can belong to it. The terror group, in its attempt to show the presence of outfit in Bangla-desh, has been claiming responsibility for every terror incident happening in that country.

There is no doubt that the terror incidents have increased in Bangladesh this year. But not many in the country believe that they have been carried out by the dreaded organisation. However, what is equally concerning is the western reaction to these incidents which, if anything, has only helped the cause of the IS.

The Islamist militants in Bangladesh started their violence early this year when they killed a Bangladeshi-American blogger and writer Avijit Roy on February 27. A previously unknown group, Ansar Bangla 7, believed to be part of the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team, claimed responsibility. Subsequently, they killed three more bloggers. Though the killing of bloggers had started after the establishment of the Gano Jagaran Manch, it really picked up pace in 2015.

The government of Bangla-desh could not act effectively against the perpetrators of the-se crimes fearing that it would be seen as anti-Islam. The Islamists in Bangladesh, who have been on back foot after Sheikh Hasina assumed power in January 2009, exploited the situation for staging a comeback.

The law enforcement agencies did not act as promptly as was expected of them leading to a number of unfortunate incidents. This led to deterioration of law and order situation in the country. However, the situation is still much better compared to what it was during the earlier BNP – Jamaat regime.

The concern about Islamist violence in Bangladesh has grown after the killing of a publisher and some foreigners. The killing of foreigners has given the Islamic militants the impact they were looking for. Now, the Western diplomatic community in Bangladesh is feeling unsafe. Several diplomatic missions have issued advisory to their staff to keep their movement within Bangladesh to minimum.

The intelligence agencies of the United States claim that they had information that the IS is going to increase its activities in Bangladesh and they had informed staff of Sheikh Hasina government about it when she was in the US to address the 70th UN General Assembly meeting. It is claimed that there is disconnect between the western intelligence agencies and Bangladesh agencies which has not allowed any effective action against the militants. The Bang-ladesh government, however, argues that they have not recei-ved any actionable intelligence from the western agencies.

The militants in Bangladesh, for the first time, attacked Shia mosques. These increased incidents of violence are of concern to both the local people as well as to the international community. The people now want the Hasina government to respond effectively to this increased violence by the militants.

Culture of impunity
It is feared that in the absence of a proper response from the government, a culture of impu-nity would set in Bangladesh, which could lead to more violen-ce. Thankfully, the government seems to have realised its mistake and is now acting tough ag-ainst such militants. The law enforcement agencies have killed and arrested a number of them.

The militants are now also expanding the killing list. Initially, they said that they are targeting bloggers because they were writing blogs against Islam.

But now they are targeting publishers, foreigners, police and Shias. They have also started targeting people who have not written against Islam but are in favour of war crime trials.

The government claims that most of this violence is perpetrated by the local militant groups like the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangla-desh (JMB). The ABT has generally targets bloggers. On the other hand, the JMB has been attacking foreigners and Shias. Both these organisations have tried to link up with the IS. They find its ideology attractive.

Even the IS says that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat alliance is a ‘coalition of murtaddin (apostates)’ and that the JMB is a “proper jihad organisation in Bangladesh based on the Kuran and Sunnah.” It seems it is trying to incite other groups to resort to greater violence. IS has now consciously used the word Bengal. This has left many people wondering whether it includes Indian West Bengal too.

The IS presently does not seem to have organisational presence in Bangladesh. However, an organisation like IS which is looking for global expansion would not be averse to expand its reach in this part of the world. Presently, there is a struggle between secularism and fundamentalism. The Hasina government so far has done a credible job of containing fundamentalism.

The world has seen that reckless change of regime does not help to check forces of fundamentalism. A similar mistake should not be committed in Bangladesh where IS seems to be trying to get attention of local people as well as the international community.

This article was originally published in Deccan Herald

• Published: 9 December, 2015

The international community should strengthen the hands of the Sheikh Hasina government. It has a proven track record of working against extremists and terrorists.

• Published: November 30, 2015
• IDSA Comments

Confrontational politics is not new in Bangladesh. But it seems to have intensified in the last few months, especially after the unofficial main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), decided to launch protests on the first anniversary of the 2014 parliamentary elections in order to force the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government to step down. The BNP considers the January 5, 2014 parliamentary elections as illegal and hence the government in power as illegitimate.

• Published: May 01, 2015
• IDSA Comments

Mohamed Nasheed, in alliance with the Jumhooree Party, poses a formidable challenge to the Abdullah Yameen government. Yameen is using the judiciary as a tool to crush this challenge and further his own political objectives.

• Published: March 19, 2015
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It is not clear what kind of democracy the BNP wants to restore in alliance with the Jamaat which does not believe in democracy. But the AL needs to proceed with caution in dealing with the ongoing protests lest it comes to be seen as an autocratic government.

• Published: January 12, 2015
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