For years, Bangladesh has been recognized as a stable, democratic Muslim nation achieving notable progress in economic and human development. From time immemorial, people irrespective of class, creed, and religion of present-day Bangladesh, have been living in such a religious harmony that was unparalleled across the globe. Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian as well as people from different indigenous tribes, all lived side by side for hundreds of years. However, since 1999, there has been a rise in attacks by Islamist militants, targeting opposition figures, scholars, journalists, judiciary members, religious minorities, and the Ahmadiyya sect. Despite a decline in terrorist incidents since 2016, Islamist groups persist, engaging in recruitment and small-scale attacks while harboring aspirations for more significant acts of violence.
EXTREMISM: A FOREIGN ELEMENT TO BANGLADESH
The roots of Islamic extremism in Bangladesh can be traced back to British colonial rule, exploiting social, economic, and religious differences between Hindus and Muslims. The aftermath of the 1947 partition of India fueled conflicts based on language, culture, and economic disparities, leading to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Throughout these upheavals, Islamic movements like Jamaat-e-Islami and Nezam Islam played and continue to play significant roles in the country’s development. Petrodollars from Gulf states and the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s facilitated Islamist extremist recruitment, giving rise to groups like Harkat-ul Jihad-al Islam (HUJI) and Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Since the 1980s, terrorist violence has claimed over 1,200 lives in Bangladesh, exposing internal challenges with extremism and terrorism. The period between 1999 and 2006 witnessed unprecedented violence by militant Islamists, causing widespread concern.
From 2006 to 2012, there was a brief respite, interrupted by violence from 2013 to 2016. Since 2013, violent extremism has surged in Bangladesh, with targeted attacks instilling fear. These attacks have claimed the lives of atheist bloggers, religious minorities, LGBTQ activists, social workers, and foreign nationals.
Since 2010, the political space for Islamist forces like Jamaat-eIslami has diminished due to the criminalization of some leaders by war crimes tribunals. The success of the Shahbagh Movement further delegitimized Islamist parties, making them more susceptible to violent extremism.
COUNTRYWIDE HORRIFYING SERIES BOMB BLASTS
Today, it is almost impossible for someone, to realize the horror and panic the countrymen experienced on the fateful day of August 17, 2005, who did not pass through the time. Approximately 460 bombs were detonated within 30 minutes starting from 11:30 am at 300 locations in 63 of the 64 districts in Bangladesh. Militant organization Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a fundamentalist militant group founded in 1998 and committed to establishing an Islamic state in the country, exploded the bombs that left two people dead and over 50 others injured.
The incident triggered the imminent rise of militant politics in the country in the following decade as one after another Islamist militant groups emerged on the scene until they were strictly neutralized under the prudent leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Up to 2005, the government of then-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia categorically denied the presence of Islamist militancy in the country, blaming the media for publishing “cooked and fabricated” stories about militant activities in Bangladesh. But we have to remember that the countrywide bomb blasts did happen out of the blue.
We have to go back to 2004 when a vicious conspiracy hatched by the then-BNP high command tried to make the Awami League (AL) leaderless. On the deadliest day in the history of the country’s politics, 24 people were killed and over 500 severely injured in a coordinated grenade attack on an anti-terrorism rally organized by the AL at the capital’s Bangabandhu Avenue area on August 21, 2004. If the state-sponsored grenade attack had not occurred, the country might not have witnessed the 63-district bomb blasts or the series of murders of writers and bloggers that followed in the next decade; in other words, the rise and spread of militant politics in the country.
THE HOLEY ARTISAN TRADEGY
Around 11 years after the countrywide bomb blasts, the country witnessed another deadly militant attack as radicalized youths, inspired by the advent of ISIS in the global context, took to arms in an attempt to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh.
On July 1, 2016, a group of five militants stormed an eatery, Holey Artisan Bakery, in Dhaka’s Gulshan area around 9:20 pm, opening fire randomly inside the upscale restaurant. The assailants entered the bakery with crude bombs, machetes, and pistols, and took several dozens of hostages (foreigners and locals).
Two officers of Dhaka Metropolitan Police were shot dead by the assailants while the law enforcers tried to regain control of the bakery in an immediate response. In total, 29 people were killed during the 12-hour standoff that followed, including 20 hostages (17 foreigners and 3 locals), two police officers, five gunmen, and two bakery staff.
Later, on November 27, 2019, a Dhaka court sentenced seven militants to death for their involvement in the attack. The seven deathrow convicts were also fined Tk 50,000 each. Mentionable, according to the investigation of law enforcement agencies, the Holey Artisan attack involved loose cooperation between different groups, including both rural-based madrasa students and elite urban young men.
THE AFTERMATH OF CAFE ATTACK
According to an International Crisis Group report prepared in 2018, “As Bangladesh’s political polarization reaches historic highs and local jihadist groups forge links with transnational movements, conditions are ripe for new forms of militancy that could threaten the country’s security and religious tolerance. Two groups, JMJB and Ansarul Islam, Bangladesh, dominated Bangladesh’s jihadist landscape in 2018. Carried out since 2013, their attacks targeted secular activists, intellectuals, and foreigners, as well as religious and sectarian minorities.”
“A faction of the JMB appears to have consolidated links to the Islamic State (ISIS) while Ansarul Islam is affiliated with al-Qaeda’s South Asian branch. Both have perpetrated a string of attacks over the past few years, some targeting secular activists, others Bangladeshi minorities,” the report said.
Meanwhile, the ruling Awami League’s crackdowns on extremist militancy after the Holey Artisan attack have lessened and disrupted militant activities in the country. The government has invested in reinforcing the capability of the security forces and judiciary, besides building political consensus on how to tackle the threat of militancy..
Ansarul Islam, Bangladesh portrays itself as the defender of Islam from those who – in its leaders’ view – explicitly attack the religion. The JMB, on the other hand, has named a longer list of enemies, considering anyone not subscribing to its interpretation of Islam as a legitimate target. The Bangladesh Police allege that JMB operatives have played a part in attacks claimed by ISIS on prominent members of minority communities and religious facilities and events, including Ahmadi mosques, Sufi shrines, Buddhist and Hindu temples, and Shia festivals.
Bangladesh’s contentious national politics have played a role in enabling the jihadist resurgence. The trial of crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 liberation war by the top leaders of Jamaat-eIslami provoked widespread anger among Islamists, which was mostly expressed through mass protest, not jihadist violence. But the Ansarul Islam, Bangladesh, depicting the trials as an assault on Islam, recruited urban, educated youth, albeit in relatively small numbers, and perpetrated brutal attacks on secular activists and bloggers who had demanded harsh punishment for those prosecuted.
“A faction of the JMB appears to have consolidated links to the Islamic State (ISIS) while Ansarul Islam is affiliated with al-Qaeda’s South Asian branch. Both have perpetrated a string of attacks over the past few years, some targeting secular activists, others Bangladeshi minorities”
THE PRESENT SCENARIO
Bangladesh still faces a sustained threat from jihadist attacks. Despite the strong vigilance of the law-enforcing agencies, new militant outfits are emerging in the country. The law-enforcement agencies came to know about the existence of a new militant organization, Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya (JAFHS) in August 2022. Militants of this new extremist organization used to receive armed training with the help of Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), a separatist organization from Chattogram Hill Tracts.
Elite force RAB, Counter Terrorism & Transnational Crime (CTTC) under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and other intelligence agencies then launched a series of raids to weaken and neutralize the new militant organization. The top leaders of the organization, including its Amir Anisur Rahman alias Mahmud and military wing chief Ranbir, were arrested one by one in the series of raids conducted in the hills as well as the plains. After the raids in the hills, the organization was practically weakened. Later in 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs officially banned it as a ‘militant organization’ on August 9.
Despite being banned in 2009, the militant organization Hizbut-Tahrir is conducting various organizational activities including recruitment of members. However, the leaders and workers of different levels of the organization have been arrested at different times, but the top leaders have remained at large so far. The law enforcers failed to identify the top leaders as the organization carried out its activities with maximum use of the cutout method. Finally, on December 7, a top leader of Hizb-ut-Tahrir Touhidur Rahman (29) was arrested from Cox’s Bazar by the CTTC. Touhidur is reportedly one of the top 2-3 members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
According to RAB, 97 JAFHS members have been arrested so far. Among them, 46 people were arrested last year while 51 people were arrested in 2023. Apart from this, two persons of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, four of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), 21 of Ansar al-Islam, Bangladesh, and 24 of other militant organizations were also arrested in RAB operations till November 2023
THE SNATCHED AWAY MILITANTS
The first incident of snatching away militants from custody in Bangladesh took place at Trishal in Mymensingh in 2014. After that, the militants planned to snatch away their comrades from police custody several times, but in vain. Nine years after the Trishal incident, militants succeeded in snatching away another two militants from the capital.
On November 20, 2022, two JMB militants, Abu Siddique Sohail alias Sakib and Mainul Hasan Shamim, who were sentenced to death, were taken away from the court premises in Old Dhaka of the capital. The two militants are convicted murderers of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan who was killed at Aziz Market at Shahbagh in the capital on October 31, 2015, and blogger Abhijit Roy.
Security analysts say that the fact that the two militants could not be arrested even after 13 months is “extremely alarming”. In this regard, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque told the media, “The possibility of another militant attack remains as the two death row militants are still at large. Maybe the efforts of the law enforcement agencies to arrest the two militants are continuing, but as long as they are not nabbed, the possibility remains that the country might witness another militant attack at any time. This failure is a big weakness in the successful antiterrorist activities.”
All kinds of efforts are being made to arrest the two militants. Our efforts are continuing.
Commenting on the two absconding militants, CTTC Chief Additional Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman told the media, “All kinds of efforts are being made to arrest the two militants. Our efforts are continuing.”
UNDER CONTROL, BUT NOT ERADICATED
According to the information provided by the Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU), 44 members of various militant organizations have been arrested in 2023. Among them, nine are from Hizb-ut-Tahrir, eight are from Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), nine are from Ansar Al Islam, five from Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), seven from Allah Party, one from Neo JMB, one from Harkatul Jihad Al Islami Bangladesh (HUJI), four from Tawhidul Uluhiyyah (al- Jihadi).
On the other hand, according to the CTTC, 118 militants have been arrested in 27 cases this year. Among them, 15 are members of Jamaatul Ansar
RAB Director General (DG) M Khurshid Hussain claimed that if the operation against the JAFHS had not happened, its members could have carried out a bigger sabotage than Holey Artisan. “To destroy the peace of the country, a vested anti-liberation force formed the new militant organization Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya in 2019, incorporating some members of various militant organizations to create a violent situation in the country,” he said, adding, “This organization had a long-term plan. The members of the organization planned the sabotage after being trained by the KNF.”
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, “Some sleeper cells of militant groups are still active. They are trying to expose themselves. Militants have not been completely eradicated, although militancy is under control.” However, despite the assurance of the home minister and RAB DG that the country’s militant organizations have been successfully weakened, the situation remains still alarming as the law enforcers are yet to arrest the two militants who were snatched away from the hands of law enforcers from the court premises in Dhaka 13 months ago.
“Some sleeper cells of militant groups are still active. They are trying to expose themselves. Militants have not been completely eradicated, although militancy is under control.”
– Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal
Moreover, law enforcement agencies are yet to arrest the ruthless militant leader and sacked army major Syed Ziaul Haque, popularly known as Major Zia, who has been absconding for over a decade.
Zia, a top leader of the Al-Qaedainspired militant outfit Ansar al Islam, has been found directly involved in at least six murders of writers and bloggers. Also, he has been named as the mastermind behind the recent snatching of two militants from court premises
While Bangladesh has long been celebrated for its stability and diverse cultural harmony, the rise of Islamist extremism since 1999 poses persistent challenges. From the countrywide bomb blasts in 2005 to the Holey Artisan tragedy in 2016, Bangladesh has confronted waves of militant violence. Despite government efforts and successes in countering specific groups, the lingering threat demands continued vigilance, as highlighted by recent incidents and the ongoing pursuit of elusive militant leaders.
