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EXPECTED REACTION IN BANGLADESH

ALI SUKHANVER

Ali display pic‘The violence has shaken the whole country, as it appears to be the first attempt at a major attack directed entirely at Muslims,’ says CNN in a report on recent disturbance in Bangladesh. But fact of the matter is that whatever happened there in Bangladesh during the last few weeks is neither unpredicted nor unexpected; more than 23 innocent people were brutally pushed to the realm of death in Holey Artisan Bakery café incident and 3 people at a checkpoint when gunmen carrying bombs tried to attack the country’s biggest gathering for the Eid prayers. Some of the analysts are alleging the Muslim militant organizations for these incidents but it seems quite illogical to fix and frame Daesh and Al-Qaeda in every act of terrorism. The incidents in Bangladesh do not belong to that particular type of terrorism; they are simply a reaction against Hasina Wajid’s unjust and partial approach towards the religious segments of society. According to the media reports on Holey Artisan Bakery café incident, nine of the victims were Italian, seven were Japanese, one was from India, two were Bangladeshi and one was a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin. Out of twenty, eleven of the victims were male and nine were female. Just after the Café Attack, different news channels were of the opinion that this ‘terrorist’ activity was a joint venture of Daesh and ISIS and as per routine some Indian news channels tried to ‘expose’ the involvement of Pakistan’s premier spy agency ISI in the matter but Dhaka’s Inspector General of Police Shahid-ul-Hoque simply rejected all these possibilities by telling the media that all the attackers in the deadly assault on Dhaka’s Holey Artisan Bakery café were Bangladeshi citizens and five of them were militants that police had tried to arrest previously. At the same time when we look at the ability of the security forces of Bangladesh regarding countering terrorism, we find them successfully eligible. According to the details of the firing episode in Sholakia, a place 100 Kms in northeast of the capital Dhaka, more than 300,000 people were taking part in mass prayers when the attack was launched. The attackers’ target was the congregation but the police very bravely stopped them from crossing the checkpoint which was set up about a kilometer from the gathering place. One of the attackers was killed and four others were taken into custody.

For the last many years, Bangladesh has been facing a very painful situation of conflict and confrontation between Hasina Wajid and the Islam-loving population of Bangladesh. Hasina is devotedly striving to introduce Bangladesh as a secular state to the world around whereas the religious forces there are not willing to give in before her illogical desire. This situation has given birth to various self-styled Islamic State groups or so-called offshoots of the al-Qaida network. Bangladesh has been reeling from a growing wave of attacks since the turn of the year, many of which have been claimed by the self-styled Islamic State group or an offshoot of the al-Qaida network however Sheikh Hasina’s has been consistently denying presence of any such groups but the present wave of violence does not support her denial. It is also a fact that inwardly Hasina would be happy over the situation because as a result of this present wave of violence she would get more opportunities of crushing the religious elements in the name of investigation. And above all she would get more chances of pleasing Mr. Modi and other Hindu extremists across the border. In short things are going to get worse for the religious people of Bangladesh and better for Modi-loving Sheikh Hasina. The religious people of Bangladesh must be prepared for more hangings in the name of ‘action against violence’. A lady who is so revengeful on those who opposed the partition of Pakistan on religious basis 45 years back would be harder on those who are protesting against secular trends in present day Bangladesh. In short Bangladesh is going to be converted into a bloody battle field very soon; moreover the Modi government shall take full benefit of the situation. The agents of R&AW shall become more active and shall add fuel to fire with their conspiracies.

We must not forget the reality that India has a very old desire of wiping off the identity of Bangladesh by merging it in India. In December 2015, a report was published in various Indian and Bangladeshi websites with the title, ‘India has a long term plan to annex Bangladesh in a way or other in future’. The report said, ‘India does have plans to annex different regions of Bangladesh in the near future and is augmenting its armed forces and paramilitary forces in the Bengal, Assam and Tripura to do just this. India is gathering strength in all such region so that one million Indian troops will soon be positioned to attack six points along the India-Bangladesh border to capture the desired parts of the Bangladesh territory including the Rangpur region, the Khulna region, the Sylhet region, the entire Chittagong region.’ Different pro-India Bangladeshi scholars have been raising a question since long; why can’t Bangladesh peacefully join India? They say that by doing so the economic problems of Bangladesh would get solved and also India will benefit a lot from the fertile lands of Bangladesh. So the game is on; Hasina is doing all her best to fulfill India’s dreams but at the same time the religious people of Bangladesh are determined that they would never let Modi become their new-father. Let us see what happens next.

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