Is it the end of the road for the radicals?

Again, at the risk of sounding cynical, it is also interesting to note the State Minister for Home eating his words by acknowledging the fact that Siddiqul Islam is neither an amorphous substance nor a phantom created by the media. In fact, it would surprise very few if it came to be officially confirmed, if any confirmation is at all required, that he was the product and beneficiary of some within the ruling coalition. His rise to a level strong enough to threaten the structure of the state, the history of growth of the two radical groups, and of course the record of his activities leaves us with no other conclusion but that the country had to suffer for the acts of some dim-witted party apparatchiks, motivated entirely by narrow personal considerations, as well as for the administration's unwillingness to acknowledge the possibility that such radical elements did indeed exist in Bangladesh.

It is even more gratifying to note that these two most wanted criminals were captured alive. There is no doubt that the agencies will be able to extract enough from them to get to the bottom of all the bomb blasts that were carried out in the country since 1999. There are reasons to believe that except for two incidents, that of August 21, 2004, and the killing of Mr. Kibria on January 25, 2005, all were carried out by the so-called Islamists group led by these two. It must be emphasised that the former was entirely political, designed to take out the entire Awami League leadership, while Mr. Kibria's killing had to do with the national and regional political power play.

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Their arrests, apart from belying the government's denial syndrome, has demonstrated that the law enforcement and intelligence agencies, whose performance deserves the ungrudging applause of all, although their Sylhet operations were rather callow, are capable of delivering the goods if left free from political interference and uncalled-for control by their political masters. However, one cannot but regret the fact that, had the administration taken heed of all the reports that were published in the press regarding the activities of the radicals, particularly over the last three years, and there was a very definite record of Siddiqul Islam's evil activities, and not called into question the objectivity of the media, we might have been spared much of the agony and the turmoil, let alone be dubbed by our detractors as another Taliban-state in the making

Their arrests will, one hopes, reveal the network of the organisations within the country as well as the internal and international links and support that they were provided, particularly the means and method of their funding. It is also very important that their local sponsors, and one couldn't be surer that there are a few, are also identified and brought to justice.

The million dollar question now is, have we seen the end of the radical activities in Bangladesh with the arrests of the two kingpins? At least the prime minister seems to be in no doubt that "any sort of extremism, or movement will die down and the terrorism in the name of Islam will end once for all" following the arrests. She is not alone in holding out such optimism. The minister for local government not many months ago demonstrated his ability to predict the future when he prophesied that the country would see the end of terrorism in the next two months.

One would like to share their optimism, but cannot, not because one doesn't want such activities in the country to end, but because of the simplistic way the whole phenomenon is perceived by many in the government. Thus, one cannot help but feel that the prime minister's comments, however well intentioned they might be, are not only highly optimistic, they are premature in the current context, unless of course the government gets to the bottom of the issue. And that is not only time consuming, it requires political will to take some hard decisions by the government that may not be palatable to some of its coalition partners.

It would be risky to proceed on the premise that we have seen the end of the religious radicalism and terrorism and violence that are motivated by these views. Unless one can unearth the internal links of these groups, their local and international sponsors, and the extent of their tentacles at the grass roots level, to articulate such an optimistic scenario may catch us off guard.

The government must give serious thought to the fact these radical elements graduated from exploding harmless incendiary devices in all but one of the 64 upazillas near simultaneously, to engaging in suicide missions, all in a matter of three months. Where producing persons motivated to engage in such missions takes years, the suicide missions indicate the depth of the organisation, which must be addressed if we are to see that such groups do not reappear in our midst.

It will also do well for us to remember that there is a group of motivated persons, who, irrespective of their numbers, are willing to go to the full extent to establish their views, however much convoluted those might appear to us. These are the people who might have decided to lie low till the spate of arrests is over before they reappear, after regrouping and reforming from the jolt that their organisation might have suffered as a result of the current operations. These are the people who claim to have been associated with a particular political party that is a part of the government, and have also been trained in madrasas.

And this is where the question of taking hard decisions by the government comes in. Whereas all this time it had displayed an ostrich like attitude by refusing the accept the reality, is it prepared to act against those within the alliance whose links to the radicals may come to be firmly established as a result of the arrest of the kingpins? And although not all madrasas can be painted with a broad brush of accusation of imparting radical ideas that are not only un-Islamic but also anti-Islam, there are certainly some that do so. Is the government willing to identify and take appropriate action against those?

It may be the end of the road for those radicals recently captured, but one cannot say with a great degree of conviction that it is the end of religious radicalism in Bangladesh. That is unless we address the reasons and arrest the people that compel such actions in the first place. And that is a matter of considerable deliberation and not a little commitment.

The author is Editor, Defence & Strategic Affairs, The Daily Star.