By Swadesh Roy*
July 9, 2015
She is a student of one of the leading private universities in Bangladesh. Her hobby is listening to Western music and dressing up in modern attire. She was passing her early university life cheerfully. Like any other day, she was returning home by her Prado jeep and moving her head to the rhythm of music. But on checking her email on her smartphone she became stiff; she even stopped registering the music. She got a single line email from one of her study group friends. The mail said, “Sister, it is the last for you, come to the way of Dawah”. Dawah are rules in the Islamic lifestyle. In Bangladesh now many sister terrorist organizations of Jamaat–e-Islam Bangladesh (Jamaat) are using the term for spreading their tentacles.
One of the economists in Bangladesh, who was a civil bureaucrat and had served in many top-level positions like chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), is one of the members and mentors of Jamaat. A close source of Jamaat says that he put forth the plan that, now it is tough to make Islamic terrorists in Bangladesh in the name of the political party like Jamaat. And a day is coming when the Sheikh Hasina government will ban Jamaat and all the senior leaders of Jamaat will be hanged for war crimes. Therefore, he proposed a plan that they have to create Islamic terrorists in the name of Dawah and Islamic study groups. The system of Dawah is working under many guises in Bangladesh. In the name of Dawah they are trying to motivate the upper class boys and girls. On the other hand, through study groups they are also trying to motivate the public university students, who come from the middle class and poor economic backgrounds. They never utter that they will overthrow the government of Bangladesh.
They try first to motivate the young that it is very necessary to create an Islamic state in the Bangladesh-India region to save Islam. Simultaneously in study groups, they discuss law, economics and lifestyle books, even thrillers, but all are decisive books which are written in favor of an Islamic state. Besides, a huge number of village women are working to propagate the Dawah. They go regularly from home to home to housewives, young girls to motivate that, their lifestyle, garments should not be in Bengali tradition, but like in Islamic state. Their style is very similar to Boko Haram of Nigeria. Sources among government officials and the others say that to continue this programme, they had to spend a lot of money. This money is entering Bangladesh from the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. ISI may get its funding partly from international terrorist organizations, like Al Qaeda, IS etc. It is also true, part of this money is coming from India. Besides, through the past four decades ISI has established many business houses in Bangladesh which are giving this money. Moreover, they are the big stockholders of ISI in Bangladesh and even the main blood of terrorism in Bangladesh.
The roots of ISI in Bangladesh run too deep and well circulated that has no match with other organizations. One of the main war criminals, Shalauddin Quder Chowdhurey, is not only a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) but is also one of the main pillars of ISI in Bangladesh. He was sentenced to the gallows by the War Crimes Tribunal. But strangely, the paper of his verdict was stolen from the computer of the Justice of the tribunal before it was produced in the court. Now a close source of one of the government bodies says, a family member of this war criminal succeeded to manage a meeting with the Chief Justice of Bangladesh. Shalauddin’s case is now in the appellate division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Chief Justice is in Chair of hearing of this case. In this position, how a family member of Shalauddin managed to meet with the Chief Justice personally, is one example of how deep rooted the ISI is in Bangladesh.
Not only in the Judiciary, the ISI’s roots in the administration is very strong too. In the beginning of the write-up there is a sketch of a private university; the same thing is going on in the administration of the education sector also. Terrorist allies are very strong in the education ministry, working always in favor of the extremist putting on the garb of a progressive manner. Besides, Sheikh Hasina is trying her heart and soul to give punishment to the terrorists through the legal process but her misfortune, the administration is not keeping in step with her. Cause is, there is a strong hand of ISI in the administration of Bangladesh.
Interestingly, Khaleda Zia, the leader of BNP, tried as she could to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the latter’s visit to Bangladesh. India had also a little interest to give her an appointment. On the other hand, the West still thinks that Khaleda is the main opposition in Bangladesh. However, all this useless political or diplomatic thinking is putting all the results in the basket of ISI, because Khaleda is the main pillar of ISI in Bangladesh. At least 128 terrorist organizations are working now under her shade in Bangladesh. They are the tools of ISI.
Pakistan has got the message, Bangladesh is going to make a sub- regional cooperation with India, Nepal and Bhutan. In order to hamper this cooperation, ISI has started more activities in Bangladesh. In the meantime, Bangladesh police and elite police forces have arrested some of the new terrorist organization members and Khaleda has started to stand against India, in the language of Pakistan.
*Swadesh Roy is Executive Editor, The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He can be reached swadeshroy@gmail.com
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