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Islamists on 10-year mission to prepare ground for revolution (Bangladesh)

Sunday October 23 2005 09:06:17 AM BDT
ABUL KALAM AZAD

The country’s Islamist militant outfits have been looking to implement, in stages, a decade-long strategy to prepare an atmosphere compatible with an Islamic revolution in Bangladesh, said intelligence officials.(New Age)

The officials, who are working to apprehend the leaders of the outfits, said the strategy was adopted in 1998 together with other Islamist groups and parties which believe in jihad and want to establish Islamic rule.

‘The 10-year-long mission was undertaken only after establishing a strong foundation by recruiting thousands of workers and agents since the early 1990s,’ said an intelligence official.

‘They have been smoothly marching toward their destination with their task already half done,’ said the official, who has obtained some crucial information about the mission.

His investigation reveals the frequent bombings are meant to make the countrymen used to such incidents so that they accept it as a part of life and not react on a mass scale. ‘The militants will continue bombing, assuming it will inure the people and help them to launch jihad.’

Intelligence officials said Islamist outfits that are operating have separate identities to give the impression that the bombings are isolated incidents, but in reality they are now working in unison to achieve their goal of establishing a fundamentalist, theocratic state.

Apart from recruiting dedicated leaders and workers they have been able to plant their people in most institutions of the society, including government departments and agencies.

Among them there are influential ministers, lawmakers, politicians, law enforcers, government officials, businessmen and journalists, but they are all working behind the scenes.

Investigation reveals that the militants have resumed trying to implement the strategy by carrying out secret killings, fighting law enforcers and looting firearms and other weapons to become stronger than the government forces.

‘They have earned sufficient strength and put their people in powerful quarters and key places, and they began operating in the northern part of Bangladesh in April last year, unveiling their faces for the first time,’ said an official.

Militants under the banner of Jagrata Muslim Janata, led by Bangla Bhai, created a reign of terror in the region through torturing, killing and maiming hundreds of people. ‘It was a big test which came out quite successfully, facing virtually no resistance or retaliatory action by the authorities,’ said the official.

‘The decision of certain sections in the government to release arrested militants, instead of pressing charges, and disobeying the prime ministerial order to arrest Bangla Bhai proves that they have successfully crossed the first obstacle,’ he added.

He said the frequent bombings were the deadliest part of the 10-year plan. ‘The bombings were meant to prove the expertise and the strength of the militants, and to inspire their followers and sympathisers,’ said the official, who is trying to find out the next step that will follow the bombings.

Investigators said that Harkat-ul Jihad Al-Islam, which began operating secretly in 1992, is the mother organisation of the militant Islamist outfits now active in the country. Nearly 3,000 Bangladeshi youths fought in the Afghanistan war, of whom 24 were killed and 10 were wounded.

They got training in the use of firearms and explosives, and were thoroughly imbued with the spirit of jihad. After returning home they started dreaming of Islamic rule in Bangladesh and began working towards that end, said intelligence officials.

Founded by Afghan war veterans in 1992, Harkat came to limelight through a press conference in the city in 1996, and soon other like-minded people and groups joined it to further the cause of jihad.

To achieve their goal the Islamist outfits also made a deal with Rohingya militants and trained their youths at the hide-outs in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

According to the pact, thousands of Rohingya militants will join hands with the outfits when they launch jihad after implementing the decade-long mission. In return, the Rohingyas will be helped by these outfits in their own struggle to create a separate Arakan state. Twenty-five Rahingyas nabbed in Chittagong admitted their link with Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, which is reportedly carried out the bomb attacks.

Hundreds of field-level militants were arrested after the August 17 and October 3 bombings, but it has failed to have any impact on the vast organisational structure of the outfits, believe intelligence officials.

They said that unless the big fish like Abdur Rahman and his brother Ataur Rahman Sunny, Bangla Bangla and their patrons in the powerful quarters are apprehended, nothing effective can be done and their operations will continue according to their plan.

The bombing in three districts on October 3 proved how dedicated the militants are, and unless the government puts itself on a war footing and is relentless in rooting them out, their operations will continue till they achieve their goal.

‘The Islamist outfits thought the government would come down heavily on them after the series of bombing incidents, but they gained more confidence and became more determined as almost nothing was done,’ said an intelligence official.

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