‘Anybody could become a target’ in Bangladesh

Nisha Desai Biswal, US Assistant Secretary State for South and Central Asia has arrived in Dhaka on May 4. In her two-day programme at Dhaka, her primary mission is to discuss the jihadist threat and machete-murders in Bangladesh, and US-Bangladesh security cooperation in that area.

On arrival, Ms. Biswal remembered late Xulhas Mannan, who was an official of US-AID and a former US embassy staff-member, hacked to death in his apartment on April 25, presumably for his private preaching of LGBT (sexually queer persons) accommodation in our society. On arrival, Ms. Biswal tweeted: Xulhaz Mannan embodied courage and selflessness and his legacy will live on in the causes he championed.

Earlier on April 28, US secretary of State John Kerry phoned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seeking steps to bring the killers of Xulhaz to justice. During the phone call, he had also said he would send US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asian Affairs to Bangladesh to further bolster cooperation on counterterrorism.

Biswal has now arrived “to discuss the broader bilateral relationship and issues of shared concern regarding security”, according to a media note issued from Washington, DC. She held a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, and Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque on the same day at the state guest house Padma.

After the meeting, Ms. Biswal again tweeted: “Important talks with FM Ali, state minister Alam, & FS Haque on US-Bangladesh partnership and combating terrorism & extremism.”

Ahead of her visit, on April 30 in the regular press briefing at the US State Department, Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner said situation inside Bangladesh was complex; the ISIS and Al-Qaeda claims responsibility of recent killings while the government statement comes different. And on May 2, in regular press briefing, US State Department Spokesperson John Kirby informed the media: “The U.S. focus remains on urging the Government of Bangladesh to provide a more secure environment for all of its citizens, one that nurtures the spirit of the people of Bangladesh and the pride with which they guard their own traditions of tolerance, peace and diversity.

“We have raised our concerns over recent problems there. We’re going to continue to do that. I don’t have more specific initiatives to lay before you, but I can tell you we’re watching this very closely and we are in touch.”

After the latest “blasphemy execution” by jihadist suspects on April 30, The Guardian of U.K. published an on-the-spot report on ‘wave of Islamist killings hits Bangladesh’ under the topic ‘Bangladesh-Islamic State-South and Central Asia.’ I quote the report by Saad Hammadi, slightly abridged, as under:

“There is an eerie feeling out on the streets of Bangladesh. To some of the city’s academics, activists and gay community, Dhaka now feels more dangerous than a war zone, after a spate of machete attacks by Islamist groups, including the murder last week of the founder of Bangladesh’s first magazine for the gay community.

At least 16 people have died in such attacks in the past three years, among them six secular bloggers, two university professors, an Italian priest, two other foreigners working in the development sector, and a prominent gay activist.

On Saturday (30 April) a Hindu man, Nikhil Joarder, was hacked to death in the district of Tangail, central Bangladesh, with police suggesting his killing might be connected to a 2012 complaint claiming that he had made comments against the prophet Muhammad.

Other targets have included high-profile cultural and intellectual figures, but also very private individuals, apparently murdered simply because Islamists objected to their lifestyle. The diversity of the victims, and the authorities’ sluggish response to the killing spree, has spread fear among anyone who identifies with those who have been killed.

“I am more worried now here than I ever was in Afghanistan, where the threats were more of an existential nature,” says a gay American who has spent time in the war-torn country and now lives in Bangladesh. He asked not to be named.

Among his friends to have died were Xulhaz Mannan, a prominent activist – founder of Roopbaan, the country’s only magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community – and Mannan’s friend, Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy. Six to seven assailants pretending to be from a courier company forced their way into Mannan’s apartment and hacked the two men to death last week.”

The Guardian further said: “Homosexuality is illegal in Bangladesh and many members of the gay community were already living in fear of being identified. Now they also have to fear for their lives – and the murders have in effect ousted many young people by forcing them to change their daily routine. ….. (But) Shockwaves from the killings went far beyond the gay or activist communities, reaching diplomatic and development workers.

“Siddique was an English professor at Rajshahi University, a musician and a devout Muslim who had no political affiliation. An aficionado of the sitar, he donated to the mosque in his home village and had helped students at its madrasa, or religious school, according to Muhammad Shahiduzzaman, a professor of international relations at the University of Dhaka. ‘Anybody could become a target,’ Shahiduzzaman says.

“Many of those now living in fear think that this was exactly the intention of the killers. Five grisly murders within a month have had a chilling effect across Bangladeshi society. ‘I have had to cut down on my presence in the civil liberty protests. It was not this frightening even a few days ago’, says Imran H Sarkar, the leader of secular activist group Ganajagaran Mancha. “Responsibility for all of the attacks has been claimed either by Islamic State or Ansar al-Islam, a chapter of al-Qaida in the subcontinent, but Bangladeshi authorities have denied the existence of international jihadi groups in the country. They say the attacks are being carried out by home-grown militants with links to the main opposition party, who are seeking to destabilise the government.

“Regardless of who is behind the killings, they are a worrying sign of weakening political and security institutions, in a country of 160 million that until now has proved relatively successful in battling extremism.

“Bangladesh’s majority Bengali Muslim population has historically had relatively liberal values, says Afsan Chowdhury, a political analyst, but those traditions are now under threat. Islamic militancy has been growing for the last 10 to 15 years as political institutions have weakened, he adds.

“After prime minister Sheikh Hasina, held on to power in a 2014 election boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party and its allies, authorities arrested senior opposition leaders on charges of instigating violence.

‘The government has very effectively punished the opposition to the point they are not really a political force anymore’, says Chowdhury. The vacuum of a strong opposition has made the atmosphere unpredictable.

“The spate of killings started in February 2013 after activists demanded that the government hang everyone convicted of collaborating with the Pakistan army during the country’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.

“Many of those brought to trial, in proceedings widely criticised by human rights groups for not meeting international standards, were linked to the opposition and its Islamist allies. One Islamist group, Hefazat-e-Islam, responded by drawing up a list of 84 atheist bloggers and demanding that the government take action against them for publishing blasphemous content online. At least five of the victims since 2013 were named on that list.

“Families of victims and those at risk fear police investigations are too slow and ineffective. So far at least 46 people have been arrested, but only two have been found guilty; they were given the death penalty for their role in the killing of the blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider. ‘An arrest is not an assurance of justice’, said Sarkar, the secular campaigner.

“There is also frustration that some killers of Avijit Roy, a murdered American blogger of Bangladeshi origin, have been able to escape the country.

“Concerns about security are mounting from international quarters after the killing of Mannan. ‘The government will try to hunt down possible suspects [in Mannan’s killing] but whether they can really get at the actual culprit, there is a great deal of doubt’, Shahiduzzaman told the Observer.

“Asha Mone’s husband, the blogger Niladry Chattopadhya, was hacked to death in front of her, but police have not contacted her in five months, she told the Observer. Officers said they had arrested five suspects in relation to the case. …. Even if the authorities do step up efforts to find and prosecute the killers, the fear that has been created will linger.”

We do not have any details yet about what transpired between the visiting US envoy and our policy-makers, but one thing is for sure: the lingering fear and the collapse of effective pluralism in Bangladesh polity may irreparably damage the country’s peace and prosperity.

Source: Weekly Holiday