The comeback of the militants

Police broke up a militant network of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hizbut Tauhid on August 11 in Chittagong and arrested its seven members. Rab captured 26 Islamist militants who had been receiving military training in a remote jungle from Bhaluka upazila in Mymensingh on August 2. The arrestees include one Afghan war veteran and two suicide bombers. The elite battalion also recovered some bomb-making materials and training equipment from their den.

The Afghan war veteran Mufti Abdur Rouf had been running the militant camp at a madrasa in Jibontota village under Bhaluka upazila for years under the nose of the law enforcers. Mufti Abdur Rouf who left Harkat-ul Jihad to form his own group, had been hiding since the series of blasts on August 17, 2005.

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There are at least 22 organisations reportedly active to establish Islamic rule in the country through armed revolution. These groups include: Jamaat-e-Al-Turat, Jamaat-e-Iahiya Trust, Hizbut Tawhid, Jamaatul Falaiya, Tawhidi Janata, Biswa Islamic Front, Jamaat-as-Shahdat, Shahdat-e-Nabuwat, Al-Khidmat, Jayasi Mohammad, Laskar-e-Jangi, Arakan Rohingya Force, Loskar-e-Taiba, and Islamic Solidarity Front.

Surprisingly, the government is unaware about the activities of these militant outfits including Harkat-ul-Jihad, Jagrata Muslim Janata, and Al-Hikma, who were banned for their anti-state activities. Harkat-ul-Jihad, that comprises Afghan war veterans, is now carrying out activities openly in the city and the government appears not to bother at all. It held a rally at Baitul Mukarram mosque on August 18 under a new banner of Sachetan Islami Janata. It is learnt that they had been holding discussions at different levels of the government for a long time in pursuit of open activities.

According to the latest newspaper reports, a top leader of an Islami Oikya Jote faction is now visiting Pakistan to raise funds for the Sachetan Islami Janata, whose main leaders are Afghan war veterans and are known for running militant activities.

According to home ministry records, 698 people have been arrested so far in connection with 154 cases on the blasts of August 17, 2005 and 87 cases for the blasts that took place later on. The police submitted charge sheet in 183 cases and 56 are still under investigation. The trial of 18 cases has also been completed. Of the charge, the JMB king-pin Shaikh Abdur Rahman is accused in 70 cases while Sidduqul Islam Bangla Bhai is accused in 67, and operations commander Ataur Rahman Sunny in 62 cases. Thirty-two militants, including Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai, and Sunny, have been sentenced to death.

It is pertinent to call into question the real success of the government to root out the extremist outfits, as the threat from the extremists has not yet been disappeared. The government did a lot of things to capture the top JMB leaders, but hardly did anything of substance to trace the financers and patrons, who have been pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

During interrogation by the Task Force Intelligence (TFI), the JMB chief Abdur Rahman admitted that his militant outfit had been fuelled through funding both from home and abroad. According to a media report, the government has already listed 25 local JMB financiers, including some high profile politicians, who have been put under surveillance. Some NGOs have been allegedly supplying funds to militants. The home ministry on March 16 formed a three-member probe committee to investigate into source of funds of the JMB. But the government is quite silent over the issue which calls into serious question its sincerity in searching out the patrons and the financers.

The government decided on August 21 to give official recognition to the certificate of Qwami madrasas, ignoring intelligence reports that hundreds of such madrasas are being used to recruit and train Islamist militants. The intelligence agencies of the country launched investigations into the activities of the Qwami madrasas after the series of blasts on August 17, 2005, and found many of these madrasas providing militancy training to their students.

The Daily Star in an exhaustive report published on August 4, 2005 focused a very sharp observation of the state of madrasa education in the country vis-a-vis the mainstream education. According to the report, madrasa education received more state favour than general education in the last five years, leading to a significant growth of madrasas in the country. Apart from 9,000 government registered madrasas there are about 15,000 other institutions across the country offering religious education without registration. The madrasas got such a robust growth after the BNP-led alliance government came to power in 2001.

It is really alarming that Islamist extremists are now regrouping under different names and imparting training to launch bigger assaults. They have become so emboldened that they are now carrying on their activities almost openly. Most of the JMB leaders, including the two king-pins, were arrested and put into jail, but it has had no effect as numerous reports reveal that these groups are increasing in strength and becoming a formidable menace. It really belies the government's assertion that extremist outfits have been nipped in the bud.

The government now needs to thoroughly recast its militancy tackling strategy and be sincere in its efforts for providing public safety and security. All the political parties must be united now against the machination of the Islamist outfits, setting aside their partisan rivalry and considering it as a burning national issue.

ANM Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.