Author: Wilson John
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 8, 2004
It would be folly to treat the threat
issued to the Indian cricket team by a terrorist organisation based in
Bangladesh as posing danger only to the players. The threat issued by Harkat
ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) poses a direct and serious danger to India because,
despite denials by the Bangladesh Government, it is clearly an indication
that terrorist groups affiliated to the Al Qaeda have made Bangladesh an
operational base. The latest threat should be read with the Bangladesh
Government's feeble denials in the past about the growing presence and
influence of terrorist groups in the country.
This is what the Bangladesh Government
should do. It should launch a country- wide manhunt to track down HuJI
activists and destroy their bases, mostly located in the hills of Chittagong.
Extraordinary preventive measures and precaution should then be initiated
at the airport, hotel and stadium besides the thoroughfares leading to
and from these sites. Preventive crackdowns on madarsas and religious organisations
suspected to be involved with terrorist groups would go a long way towards
effectively countering the threat. It should not be difficult for the Bangladeshi
intelligence and security forces to trace the origins of the threatening
letter received by the Indian embassy in Dhaka. Dhaka should then unequivocally
assure Delhi that it would be the responsibility of Bangladesh to ensure
the safety of the Indian players.
This is what the Indian Government
should do. It should not cancel the cricket matches. Let the decision rest
with the cricket administration. The Government should let it be known
to the Bangladesh Government that it would be the responsibility of the
latter to ensure the safety of the players. Any harm to the Indian players
would be treated as a threat to India and would be dealt with accordingly.
The Government should extend all help, both in terms of intelligence and
material support, in tracking down the terrorist groups that have gained
considerable ground since September 11.
There is a reason why the current
threat calls for a strong response. Terrorist groups like HuJI are not
localised groups of insurgents with rudimentary weapons. HuJI is today
Al Qaeda's affiliate group in South and Southeast Asia with presence in
Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. These
groups were first engaged in the Afghan war and then in supporting and
sustaining the Taliban and Al Qaeda as a fountainhead of global terrorism.
With the US launching a global war on terror and the subsequent decimation
of the Taliban and countless cells and affiliate groups of the Al Qaeda,
it was becoming difficult for the groups to operate in familiar grounds
like Pakistan and Afghanistan. With Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf
joining hands with the Bush Administration to clear his backyard of terrorism,
the Al Qaeda has been on the move since September 11, searching for new
areas to establish more secure bases.
Bangladesh is one country which
fits neatly into the Al Qaeda's preferred options. It is an impoverished
nation; politically enfeebled, economically backward and with ports which
have been active hubs for transnational crime, including weapons running.
But more significant is the traditional presence of extremist religious
groups jostling for political space, often left vacant by frequent bouts
of political instability and military interventions.
These religious groups, particularly
the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), which emerged as Bangladesh's third largest
party during the October 2001 elections, have gained strength in recent
years. As a natural corollary, Bangladesh has witnessed growing presence
of terrorist groups parasitic on young students graduating from madarsas
funded largely by Saudi Arabian charity institutions. One of the more prominent
of these Islamic militant groups is Harkat ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), Al
Qaeda's operating arm in south and south-east Asia. Closely linked to the
religious organisation, Jamiat-e-Ulema e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman faction),
Harkat until recently was led by Qari Saifullah Akhtar, who was an advisor
to Taliban chief Mullah Omar and Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden, and was
one of the few who escaped from Kandahar when US jets pounded Afghanistan
after the 9/11 attacks.
The HuJI or Harkat, which ran training
camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, effectively became a meeting
place for jihadis with connections stretching from Chechnya to Manila.
Qari Saifullah's group was called the Punjabi Taliban. HuJI's main operational
base in Pakistan has traditionally been Karachi where it operates from
48 seminaries including the Binori madarsa. An illustration of its multi-national
character is evident in the diversity of its cadre. For instance, one of
HuJI's major recruiting grounds is the Korangi area in Karachi populated
by Rohingyas, migrant Muslims from the Arakan region of Burma.
Besides Pakistan, HuJI has been
consolidating its position in Bangladesh where it boasts a membership of
more than 15,000 activists, of whom at least 2000 are hardcore. Led by
Shawkat Osman (alias Sheikh Farid) in Chittagong, the group has at least
six training camps in Bangladesh. According to one report, about 3,500
Bangladeshis had gone to Pakistan and Afghanistan to partake in jihad.
Barring 34 who died, a large number of them returned home; of these about
500 constitute the backbone of HuJI. While in Afghanistan, some of them
met Osama bin Laden at Khost on February 11, 1989, a few months before
their leader Abdur Rehman Farooqui died while clearing mines near the city.
Farooqui is believed to be the founder of HuJI in Bangladesh. More evidence
of the group's alignment with the Taliban and Al Qaeda is revealed by a
fatwa issued by the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh led by JuI chief Fazlur
Rehman on February 23, 1998. The directive was signed by Osama bin Laden,
his deputy Ayman al-Zawhiri, Rifa'i Ahmad Taha aka Abu-Yasir (Egyptian
Islamic Group) and Sheikh Mir Hamzah (secretary of the JuP).
The most troubling aspect of HuJI's
rise in Bangladesh is its connections with religious groups. The group
has camps in the inaccessible, hilly terrains of Cox Bazar and Banderban
and along the No Man's Land adjacent to the Bangladesh- Burma border. The
group enjoys the support and patronage of about 30 madarsas in Chittagong.
These camps are used for recruitment and weapons training. In a series
of investigative articles, Pratham Alo, a prominent Bangladeshi newspaper,
disclosed the involvement of several madarsas in the border areas of Naikhangchhari
and Ukhia in imparting weapons training and ideological guidance. These
madarsas are funded by Islamic NGOs based in West Asia including the Saudi
Arabian Al Yamama Trust and Al Harmain al Khairia, UAE- based al Fujairia
and Darul Ansar al Khairia of Dubai. Although none of these organisations
have any offices in the areas where terrorist groups are active, they operate
through a network of preachers who not only distribute money but also motivate
and mislead the youth into joining jihad.
If the Al Qaeda is allowed to entrench
itself in Bangladesh, it would have successfully established a semi-arc
of terrorist networks stretching from Dhaka to Jakarta, with a sizeable
presence along some of the most important stretches of international water,
including the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, South China Sea and the Pacific
Ocean. Landlocked from three sides and with a delta opening out to the
waters of Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh offers Al Qaeda a perfect sanctuary
and an extremely difficult theatre of operation should the international
community extend the war on terrorism to South East Asia, a possibility
that cannot be entirely ruled out given the developments in the region.
This is the reason why the threat to the Indian cricket team should be
treated as the red flag going up on Bangladesh as a terrorist base.
