Pro-Pakistan jihadis have infiltrated both of Bangladesh’s major national parties. Only Sheikh Hasina can take them down
The rise of jihadi Islam in Bangladesh is directly linked to former President Ziaur Rahman lifting the ban on religion-based politics that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had imposed after Bangladesh's liberation. Zia not only helped revive the defunct Jamaat-E -Islam and 65 other Islamic and pro-Pakistan parties which had collaborated with General Yah Yah Khan's military to prevent Pakistan's break up and defeat Sheikh Mujib's concept of a secular Bengali nation, but also allowed the return of the Jamaat's ‘Aamir’ Gholam Azam, who was living in exile in Pakistan, to lead the party. He also politically rehabilitated discredited pro-Pakistan Muslim league leaders by making them key members of his Cabinet. He enunciated the concept of a Muslim Bangladeshi identity as opposed Sheikh Mujib's Bengali identity, by underpinning the point that an overwhelming number of his people were Muslims whose religion, culture and way of life set them apart from Hindu Bengalis.
Zia's restoration of religion-based politics and his asserting of a distinctive Muslim identity was boosted by his successor General Ershad who Islamised the Constitution by making Islam Bangladesh's state religion. This sharply divided Sheikh Mujib's Bengali nation on religious and ethnic lines. It also marked the beginning of a protracted battle between those were defeated in the liberation war but still firmly wedded to the Pakistani philosophy that religion and political Islam could provide the basis for sustaining Bangladesh, and those were led by Sheikh Hasina and upheld secular Bengali nationalism as the cornerstone of Bangladesh's existence.
The battle that Zia had started is continuing and is now in its final stages. For both groups, it is a fight to the finish. For Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina the stakes are high — she has no alternative but to win this battle, as defeat would mean total negation of all the lofty ideals achieved in the liberation war and also the very concept of Bangladesh itself.
Ever since liberation, Bangladesh had been directly and indirectly ruled for almost three decades by pro-Pakistan Islamists, who held key ministerial and administrative jobs. When the Jamaat was put in charge of the social welfare Ministry, it invited Saudi and Pakistani NGOs, specially those working in education and healthcare sectors, to open English- and Arabic-medium schools, colleges and universities, and set up clinics and hospitals and even pharmaceutical companies. In one month, it registered 500 Islamic NGOs run by the Jamaat which started residential schools all over the country.
The ruling Awami league has also contributed to the spread of the jihadi virus. It allowed the entry of Jamaatis into the party against hefty payments, hoping to enlarge the Awami league's Muslim support base. Many infiltrated with the connivance of Awami league's middle-level leaders with the sole purpose of subverting the party from within. The Jamaatis had already successfully done this to Khaleda Zia's BNP.
The possible imposition of a ban on the Jamaat had made its leaders and workers seek refuge in the BNP. But they also replaced the BNP’s nationalist character with a jihadi mindset. So, in 2014 when Begum Zia decided to boycott the parliamentary poll by, the Jamaatis in her party went on the rampage by fire-bombing buses, public and private vehicles and even rickshaws, in which over 500 people were killed. This terror tactic alienated the BNP from the people.
The Jamaatis have been encouraged to join Awami league because an influential section of the ruling party has always tried to be accommodating of Jamaat and its front organizations to get a larger share of Muslim votes. The same Jamaat-friendly leaders in the ruling party had tried to scuttle the trial of war criminals, saying this would antagonise the Muslim sentiment. They also did not Sheikh Hasina to execute the High court order banning imams from issuing fatwas. Indeed, the sudden emergence of Awami Olema league ahead of this year’s Pahela Baisakh and its fatwa banning the national festival came as a rude shock to those for whom the Awami league is the last bastion defending Bangladesh's secular nationalist ideals.
The sole purpose of unleashing jihadi attacks is to weaken Bangladesh and destabilise Sheikh Hasina's Awami league Government. The other purpose is to halt Bangladesh's enviable record of galloping economic growth and stop the massive inflow of foreign investment. It is no coincidence that the Japanese experts engaged in the construction of Dhaka metro were killed at Gulshan café.
Why have the jihadis suddenly become so desperateIJ What are they trying to achieve through such ruthless actsIJ The reason for desperation is that the number of the Jamaat's godfathers is fast dwindling. The promptness with which Sheikh Hasina has been carrying out the death sentence verdicts, issued by the war crimes tribunal, has unnerved the Jamaatis and their foreign mentors.
Also, organisationally, both the BNP and Jamaat have shrunk considerably. Before the two become politically irrelevant, their best strategy for defence is to strike back by challenging Sheikh Hasina's authority. Already, the killing of bloggers and others had created the popular perception that Sheikh Hasina's Government is unable to protect citizens and the country was sliding into anarchy. If an anti-Awami league protest movement takes shape, it will provide an excellent opportunity for the jihadis to seize power.
Already they have made several attempts on the life of Sheikh Hasina, who is the last hope of for Bangladesh's secular nationalists. Sheikh Hasina is fighting back courageously and in a determined manner. That she is made of sterner stuff and is more than a match for the jihadis has been proved by 26 July raid on a jihadi hideout. She has a good chance of winning this battle, unless, of course, her own party colleagues let her down.
(This is the concluding article in a two-part series on Islamists in Bangladesh)