The recent attack in Wagah by a faction of Pakistani TTP terrorists was assumed by some to be aimed at India and ensuring that India Pakistan relations do not improve. In reality the attack was a brutal message to the Pakistan Army delivered in the Punjab province by a section of the TTP in retaliation to the Zarb-e-Azb operation in FATA.
It was designed to show a lethal ability to strike in the Punjab - the political, military and economic heart of the country. It is for Pakistan to handle terrorism that emanates from its soil against itself. It had nothing to do with India
Usually, the first reaction to news about a terrorist incident in India conjures visions of an attack from Pakistan-aided groups; Left Wing extremists or those in the north east are lower down on the list. Bangladesh is rarely, if ever, associated nowadays with terrorism in India and the east was generally assumed to be peaceful. Yet the country is now swarming with radical Islamist groups and factions of different affiliations that the authorities find difficult to track. Porous borders make crossings easier.
The incidents in Burdwan when an accidental bomb blast killing two terrorists on October 2 led to the most alarming revelations. The authorities discovered a sinister plan in the region with bomb factories and training facilities. It was evident that this has been in the making for years unknown to the state and central authorities.
Early indications were that the conspirators were planning to use these bombs during Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata while subsequent investigations have pointed to a conspiracy to create terror in Bangladesh. There has also some suspicions that the plot extended to Assam and Meghalaya where Jamat-ul-Mujahedeen (JMB) had its clandestine bases. Yet the discovery of 150 containers of explosives, dozens of IEDs and hand grenades did not stir the state authorities to any urgency. In fact the, state authorities were held at bay and prevented from entering the house of the Trinamool Congress representative where the blast had occurred by two women pretending to be armed as they wiped the evidence inside the house. And in a classic display of stupidity, instead of defusing the bombs discovered the state machinery went ahead and detonated all the crude bombs, thereby destroying all forensic evidence. This prompted Prakash Singh, former DG Police UP and BSF, to remark that "It was either professional stupidity or was deliberately done as a cover-up."
What should be worrying is that a conspiracy of this magnitude in a part of India and spread over three districts that could have involved two friendly countries was in the pipeline for years and we were all ignorant, complacent or worse, were being deliberately negligent or conniving by politicising counter terror efforts. This is sad commentary for a country that has been through years of terrorism, has experienced the horror of Mumbai 2008 and professedly put institutions and systems in place to prevent this kind of a situation. The fear now should be not just what has been discovered, but also the amount that the authorities may not know. Indian, and possibly, Bangladesh authorities will now follow the leads to hopefully unearth the conspiracy.
There are larger implications for the entire region of this Burdwan Plot. This did not happen overnight and must have taken years and conceivably after the Bangladesh government had begun a hunt for the JMB leaders and cadres ever since the group carried out an audacious series of blasts in 63 districts of a total of 64. The terrorists had planted 458 locally made bombs and distributed leaflets declaring they were soldiers of Allah and had taken to arms. There were hardly any casualties but they were dropping visiting cards.
The JMB was set up in 1998, and along with other similar extremist organisations were campaigning for an Islamic State. The JMB was suspected to have links with Al Qaeda, largely because its founder Abdur Rahman had gone to Afghanistan along with 3500 other Bangladeshi recruits by the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI), an Al Qaeda friendly extremist organisation and considered to be the mother of all jihadi organisations in the region. Upon their return they were called the Bangladeshi Taliban. Several Pakistani terrorist organisations like HuM, JeM and even the Taliban have had HUJI lineages.
Sheikh Hasina has to deal with three broad groups that seek to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh through an Islamic revolution and the implementation of the sharia... However, Jamaat-e-Islami and some others like the Islamic Okiya Jote, Jamaat-e-Ulema-Islam, Bangladesh and others are willing to participate in the elections. The Hizbut Tehrir Bangladesh is not willing and dreams of a Sharia based Khilafat state. Then there are several clandestine groups who seek a violent overthrow of the present system and are active to varying degrees. These include HUJI (Bangladesh), (many of who were Afghan jihad veterans), JMB, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and some Pakistan-based terror organisations like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and others.
The Islamists have been particularly active since the Shahbag movement of February 2013 demanding death sentence for Abdul Qadir Mollah sentenced to life imprisonment by the War Crimes Tribunal and a ban on the JI. The reaction of the Islamists was immediate, fierce and violent with the calls "Save Islam" and "Down With Apostates." An obscurantist group Hefajat-e-Islam has become active since 2011and many of its leaders are from HUJI.
Another group that owes its rise to the Shahbag movement is the Ansarullah Bengali Team, an Islamic extremist organisation, is an offshoot of the Islami Chhatra Shibir and involved in two brutal attacks on anti-Islamic bloggers. The group has been inspired by Anwar Al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda activist. The Ansarullah website carries translations of Awlaki's Jihadi texts. This group seeks to fill the gap in the absence of JMB and HUJI (B) and has had Al Qaeda trainers from Pakistan visiting them and those in jail have been meeting HUJI and JMB representatives.
The fact is that the Burdwan blasts have thrown other possibilities. Both HUJI and JMB are Al Qaeda agents in Bangladesh. Now we have an Al Qaeda in South Asia believed to be headed by Ustad Asim Umar, an Indian and a TTP supporter with Bangladesh as their prime target. HUJI, JMB and Ansarullah operatives will be used for this. There have been previous threats from Al Qaeda against India and AQIS may be repeating this to remain relevant, given that their capacity to strike in India is considered limited. For Pakistan, where AQIS is known to be based in the cozy comfort of other similar malcontents, this will be a double-edged sword. A successful attack in India gives Pakistan deniability but the AQIS can just as easily become renegade.
Bangladesh and Bhutan have rendered considerable assistance to India in tackling insurgency in the northeast. Sheikh Hasina has also proceeded with the Special War Crimes Trial to bring the perpetrators and collaborators in the crimes and genocide in the country's fight for freedom in 1971, for long sheltered by previous governments, to justice. Despite the resolve of the government to stay the course of secular politics there are persistent challenges from the Islamic right. Yet the Lady is not for turning. The trials against war criminals will continue generating impotent rage among the Mullahs. However, a comment of an Awami League Minister on Haj sparked off angry protests from the Jamat-e-Islami and Hefajat-e-Islam resulting in his ultimate removal from the Cabinet is an example of growing intolerance.
Religion is increasingly and very demonstrably becoming a factor in Bangladesh politics at a time of great ferment in the Islamic world and growing intolerance and belligerence in Pakistan. Many Bangladeshi extremist groups have had links there. An Islamic State has been established in West Asia and this is a vindication and an inspiration for many extremists in Pakistan and Bangladesh to emulate and to cooperate. This conflict is going to be long and there will be any number of terrorist threats thrown in, some old ones rehashed, some half-baked ones and some deliberately touted to frighten the reader.
The Bangladesh government may have a problem on its hands and some of this may be because of the unauthorised presence of JMB elements in India. We owe to ourselves (as we can hardly feel secure with these developments on both our borders) and, to Bangladesh, to ensure that this does not happen from our soil. Counter terror cooperation with Bangladesh needs to be strengthened. This would be easier for the two countries to continue cooperation but this also needs peoples' participation because intelligence comes from an alert people. We need to move from an Age of Entitlement to an Age of Responsibility in many spheres, including security of the nation
The views expressed in the above article are that of Mr. Vikram Sood, former Secretary R and AW, Government of India, and currently an adviser to the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.
