Bangladesh: Afghanistan Beckoning...

by William Gomes

02 Apr, 2009

Bangladesh has been terrorized by Islamic terrorists in recent years. Terrorism has created a culture of fear in Bangladesh. Our main objective must be to free the nation from this culture of fear. Afghanistan is noted with the notion that "a nation at war and some time a nation engulfed by the “Taliban”.

In the 1990s, 70,000 to 120,000 Muslim youths trained in different Al-Qaeda and Taliban camps in Afghanistan for fighting Jihad in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Al-Qaeda trained notable numbers of Islamic groups and indoctrinated them with the mission of “Jihad”. These trained cadres then fanned out all over the world to propagate the doctrine of violent Jihad and terrorism, and create atmosphere of terror and fear.

The Arakan Rohingya Nationalist Organization (ARNO) and Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) were also among the groups that were trained in Afghanistan and have been active in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Every single Islamic terrorist attack, from 9/11 to Bangladesh or elsewhere in world, is a direct or indirect curse of the mushroom-growth of Islamic terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) and Jamaat-ul-Mujaihdeen Bangladesh (JMB) have had a close relation with the Afghanistan-based Islamic terrorist networks. Bangladesh witnessed a significant bloodshed, particularly during the previous Islamists-allied government, in the name of Islamic Jihad. Roads of Bangladesh were shacked with the slogan “We are Taliban and Bangla Will be Afghan”.

Bangladesh is experiencing a huge challenge in controlling political Islam and Islamic terrorism. If the surging trend of Jihadi Islamic propaganda and violence is not effectively contained, Bangladesh may become a big threat to the world-peace and security.

As a multifaceted phenomenon, Islamic terrorism need to fought regionally and jointly.

The experience of fighting Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan and its ramifications can acts as a pivotal lead as to how Islamic terrorism must be fought elsewhere, particularly in neighboring South Asia.

The present Afghanistan Government and the people of Afghanistan are a major ally of the international community in fighting Islamic terrorists. Nonetheless, while articulation and pursuit of Afghan foreign policy may provide significant lead toward fighting Islamic Jihadis, in a diverse and interdependent world, a lasting solution to the culture of fear and violence, created by global Jihadi networks, demands a regional as well as global united and resolute effort.

Bangladesh faces a Afghanistan-like situation unless it undertakes effective and resolute measures urgently toward fighting and exterminating the violent Jihadi elements within the country. But it requires regional and international help to fill the gap in its inadequate resources and aspirations in fighting the Islamic terrorists.

International community should inspire the politicians and policy-makers of Bangladesh to mobilize maximum efforts and resources at its disposal to create a home-grown popular movement against the culture of violence and fear: it must be a people’s movement against Islamic terrorism for securing peace, prosperity and justice.

To avoid a Afghanistan-like scenario, Bangladesh must learn from Afghanistan's sufferings from Islamic Jihadism and her experience of fighting the menace. Because of the mobile and elastic nature of the threat, it will also require mutual cooperation from countries of the region: Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Such an initiative will be central in stamping out the surging Jihadi threats not only to Afghanistan and Bangladesh, but also to the entire region to herald it as a zone of stability, peace and security, instead of as a zone of Jihadi threat to the world.

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William Gomes is an independent human rights activist and a political analyst. He can be reached at cda.exe@gmail.com.