Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Militants held in Bangladesh
On Sunday, Bangladeshi police arrested 3 suspected members of the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh [Reawakened Muslim Masses] (JMJB), a group suspected of terrorizing populations in northern Bangladeshi areas such as Bogra with Taliban-like edicts and whose leader, Bangla Bhai, according to some foreign press has recently been raising funds for jihad. Local police apparently suspect one of them of being involved in the recent attack on the NGO known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). DakBangla has an interesting analysis on the reasons behind the attacks on BRAC and the Grameen Bank.
The New York Times highlighted Bangla Bhai in a 23 January analysis of Islamic terrorism in the country. I'm not as certain that the JMJB is that much of a problem in the context of international Sunni terrorism as a whole, but I am rather worried about Bangladesh. Recent attacks in Bangladesh include a 27 January attack on an Awami League (opposition party) rally that killed a former finance minister and a 14 February Valentine's Day attack at a university cultural event (the latter probably perpetrated by the Islami Chhatra Shabir, the militant student wing of the Jamiat-e-Islami.)
In other Bangladesh news, the death toll has reached 149 from a ferry accident in the Buriganga River.
Update: Seems as though Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League doesn't think much of Bangladeshi efforts to catch the JMJB leader.
Gov’t Order To Arrest Bangla Bhai A Hoax: Hasina
The Awami League President Sheikh Hasina alleged yesterday that the BNP-Jamaat alliance government had been patronizing terrorist groups across the country, particularly the ‘fanatic outfit of Bangla Bhai’ in the northern region, after losing ground beneath its feet. The Leader of the Opposition brought the allegation against the alliance government when Ismail Mridha, father of Yasin Ali, a slain leader of her party’s Baghmara upazila unit, came to meet her along with local AL leaders at her Sudha Sadan residence in the city yesterday. Terming the orders of the Prime Minister and the State Minister for Home Affairs for the arrest of ‘Bangla Bhai’ as nothing but an eyewash and hoax, Sheikh Hasina said that the anti-state activities of the chief of the fanatic-militant group continued in the country’s northern region with the blessing of the government and particularly two state ministers, who are his ‘godfathers.’ She said the government has been implicating popular leaders and organizers of her party in false cases and killing them using either the armed cadres of Bangla Bhai or its elite force––Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). "None is safe and secure in the northern region as Bangla Bhai is seemingly running the administration there with the backing of the state minister of works Alamgir Kabir and state minister for land Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu," the Awami League chief said.
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