Monster in the mirror
BANGLADESH has been making headlines in the leading dailies all across the world recently, as the media is full of reports of militancy links to the BDR mutiny and the discovery of arms and ammunitions in a madrasa in Bhola.
The business community has expressed their concern over too much talk on the terrorist issue, as it has already started to give the country a bad name which is likely to affect foreign direct investment and manpower export adversely.
The people of this country have so far witnessed two strands of reaction while dealing with terrorism. BNP-led four-party government had always been in denial mode on terrorism issue and termed it as the creation of media. On the other hand, the AL-led alliance government is forever crying wolf on the issue.
Admittedly, terrorism in Bangladesh found a new dimension during the rule of BNP-led four-party government, as some of the former ministers and lawmakers allegedly had directly and indirectly provided support to these groups.
But the situation is quite different now. The success of the law enforcement agencies in smoking out militants from different part of the country has neutralised the threat to a great extent.
Therefore, the people of this country hardly have any reason to feel discomfort in the thought that the government has failed to tackle terrorism effectively and that they are living in the grip of militancy.
Defining terrorism has always been a difficult exercise. It is a pejorative term used to describe the action or ideologies of individuals or groups outside the perceived political centre of a society or otherwise claimed to violate common standards of ethics and reciprocity.
The bloody blasts in Mumbai did not make India a breeding ground of terrorism, and the repeated explosions could not turn Pakistan into a country of Osama bin Ladens. The shadow of al-Qaeda and other militancy threat is lengthening all across the world. Therefore, terrorism is to be looked as the monster in the mirror without exaggerating its influence to each misdeed.
The root of terrorism is embedded in certain political, economic, and social deprivation, which essentially reflects a long but unsuccessful struggle to bring about changes in the state structures. This is a prime cause of the frightening rise of terrorism in this region.
The failure of Pakistani government in containing religious extremism in the country lies in the fact that it did not tackle the crisis effecting social reform and political liberalisation.
The main reasons behind rising religious terrorism in Bangladesh are violation of rights of the poor and use of religion in politics. Unless the government ensures the rights of the poor through poverty alleviation and prevents the use of religion in politics, nothing else will help people to wean away from the hard-line attitude that is sustaining terrorism in Bangladesh.
Redesigning of madrasa education, which is also liable to breed religious terrorism, is imperative to save the young minds from the clutch of religious extremists. The lack of proper education and enlightened governance has enabled extremists to create pockets of support by manipulating Islamic teachings.
The people cannot afford any more to live in the suspicion created by either of the two afore-mentioned assumptions. We do not really know even today who were the terrorists that attacked the Udichi cultural function in 1999 at Jessore and Awami League rally on August 21, 2004.
CID has filed a case recently against three of its former investigators in connection with intentionally misleading the probe into the August 21 grenade attack case during the BNP-led four-party alliance government's rule.
These officials had implicated a number of innocent people in the case who were compelled to confess before a magistrate allegedly through torture and bribery. This is certainly a glaring example how the BNP-led alliance government dealt with terrorism.
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