The massacre at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka on July 1 was long in coming. Ever since its liberation in 1971, Bangladesh has been struggling to maintain pretence of a liberal society and religious harmony. Even this pretence was dropped when former President Ershad legitimised Jamaat-e-Islami and made the nation an Islamic republic. Ex-premier Khaleda Zia went one step further. She cohabitated with Jamaat in her government and allowed Islamic fundamentalists to take deeper roots.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, though liberal at heart, conspicuously avoided being perceived as a secularist for electoral gains. In the aftermath of the demolition of Babri Mosque, she remained a passive spectator to killing of Hindus and destruction of their property. It was left only to a few of her truly secular colleagues who independently provided relief to Hindus and fought pitched battles against the marauders. The result of her pusillanimous approach to the rise of radical Islamic groups is there for all to see. For two years, Hindu priests, liberal bloggers, professors and artists are being regularly killed and now we get to witness this butchery.
The issue that confronts Dhaka today is not whether attackers of Holey Artisan Bakery belong to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen of Bangladesh (JuMB) or the ISIS or whether they were inspired by Zakir Naik of Mumbai-based Research Peace Foundation, but the fast shrinking of space for liberalism and communal harmony in the country. Already the population of Hindus, Buddhists and Christians has gone down from 29 per cent to 4 per cent during the past 60 years. And, liberal Muslims who now form only 30 per cent of the population are getting increasingly marginalised.
Hasina has to understand that platitudes, candle light vigils, ban on Peace TV and impassioned statements won’t work. Her immediate job should be to revamp her intelligence agencies and make them aggressively monitor migration of youths from normal activities to jihad. More importantly, she has to ensure that her security forces do not get radicalised on the pattern of the Pakistan Army and turn Bangladesh into a daily killing field like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The ISIS may never succeed in establishing Caliphate of Bangladesh and impose Sharia laws in the country with the help of suicide bombers, but incidents of frequent bombing and hacking to death in the name of Allah can always excite and motivate reluctant volunteers to become violent foot soldiers of Islam.
India is actually not so badly placed as Bangladesh. Hindus and an overwhelming majority of Muslims are opposed to religious violence and have got accustomed to living by democratic norms and a secular Constitution. Its defence forces are apolitical and it has a pro-active judiciary, which over-zealously guards the rule of law.
Nevertheless, pockets of fissures do exist, requiring urgent fixing. Our political parties have a penchant for tolerating and protecting potential terrorists for electoral reasons. Taking sides on the Batla House encounter, Ishrat Jahan or those arrested for suspected ISIS links is dangerous. It encourages misguided ‘crusaders’ to carry out murders. Owaisi would have done better by not announcing to defend suspects picked up from Hyderabad by NIA. Providing financial support per se is a noble gesture, but not extending this patronage to other Muslims languishing in Indian jails for years is mischievous. Read also the mischief in Imam Bukhari’s call for transparency in anti-terror arrests and not arrest of all criminals.
India’s another problem is its porous border along Bangladesh. As Dhaka hunts for jihadis, they are likely to flee to India for a safe sanctuary, particularly in West Bengal and Assam, and eventually join our home-grown jihadis. The border thus needs to be sealed stringently and bordering people’s national identity established on priority without an exception. Since most terrorist incidents are caused by suspects who blipped earlier on the surveillance radar (intelligence agencies in the US, UK, France, Belgium, Australia and India are all serial offenders on this count), a system also needs to be put in place to tail them till they drop dead or get convicted.
These measures will surely evoke rebuke from our duplicitous NGOs, the liberal press and secular politicians who feast on alienation of Muslims. But the challenge has to be met. We can no longer afford to sit smugly while evangelists justify terrorism and savagery, mindless violence is preached in the name of Allah and misguided youths choose martyrdom for pleasures of life.
The writer is former special secretary, Research and Analysis Wing
amarbhushan@hotmail.com