South Asia Terrorism Portal

BANGLADESH

The Shadow of International Terror
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
 

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on December 1, 2020, disclosed that the government was moving to re-activate the investigation of 83 cases of Hefazat-e-Islam's (HeI) 'terrorist activities' in 2013, adding,

He admitted that "seven years have passed for various reasons, which is a big mistake."

Previously on May 5, 2013, HeI enforced their 'Dhaka Siege' programme to mount pressure on the Awami League (AL)-led Government to implement their 13-point demand, including the demand to “pass a law providing for capital punishment for maligning Allah, Islam and the Prophet Muhammad… and smear campaigns against Muslims”. Four civilians were killed and several others injured as cadres of HeI fought running battles with the Police across Dhaka, turning the capital into a city of panic. 70,000 Islamists marched down at least six highways and took positions at the entry points of the city, stopping road transport and cutting off Dhaka's road links with the rest of the country, while they raised slogans of 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) and "One point, one demand: Atheists must be hanged."

More than 10,000 personnel drawn from the Police, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) jointly launched a drive late on May 5, 2013, to clear demonstrators from Dhaka. As violence moved beyond the capital on May 6, 2013, at least 27 persons, including three Security Force (SF) personnel and an HeI cadre, were killed and several were injured in Narayanganj, Chittagong and Bagerhat Districts. Two of the injured died on May 7 and another one on May 9, 2013.

Police later filed cases and investigations began. However, the Sheikh Hasina Government allegedly slowed down the proceedings because the then leader of HeI, Shah Ahmad Shafi, (who died of sudden illness on September 18, 2020), had decided to change the organisation’s stance and strengthened his ties with the Hasina Government.

Now that a faction of the HeI, Hefazat-e-Islam–Babunagri, led by newly appointed Amir (chief) Junaid Babunagri, has started asserting radical views and engaging in violent protests, the Government has decided to reactivate the cases. On November 27, Junaid Babunagri put forth four demands before the Hasina Government: stop International Society for Krishna Consciousness’ (ISKCON’s) activities in Bangladesh; officially declare the Ahmadiyas ‘non-Muslim’; close the Embassy of France and expel the French Ambassador; and pass a resolution condemning France in Parliament. They are protesting against French President Emmanuel Macron because he has held his ground against attacks by Islamist forces extremists and terrorists on his country’s values and the freedom of belief.

Junaid Babunagri also threatened to pull down and destroy all sculptures, no matter which party put those up. He added that if a new sculpture of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was set up as planned, “it will be dragged down." The outfit is leading violent protests across the country against installation of sculptures of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for his birth centenary celebrations this year.

Since coming to power in January 2009, the Hasina Government has been following the policy of ‘zero tolerance’ in dealing with extremism and terrorism. It has weakened almost all the Islamist terrorist outfits which were creating trouble in the country before she assumed power. Since January 2009, at least 344 Islamist terrorists have been killed and 25,241 arrested by Bangladeshi Security Forces. The major terrorist outfits are all currently dormant.

Radical elements, however, continue to operate and remain a threat.

Adding to concerns is the danger emanating from a radicalised Bangladeshi Diaspora, elements among which are planning to create trouble in and around the country after their return, even as others fund extremist elements within Bangladesh. ‘War returnees’ – those who have returned from terrorist campaigns in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and other theatres of Islamist terrorist strife, also have similar and sinister designs. Reports indicate at least 50 Bangladeshis have travelled to Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, to join Islamic State. Several Islamist extremist organisations in Bangladesh also have links with al Qaeda, the Tehreeq-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Taliban in the Af-Pak complex.

On November 24, it was announced by Singapore's Home Ministry that, on November 2, security agencies had arrested a Bangladeshi man, identified as Ahmed Faysal, a construction worker, who they claim was plotting attacks against Hindus in his home country, Bangladesh, and planning to fight in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as well. Ahmed Faysal reportedly immigrated to Singapore in 2017. Faysal was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for "terrorism-related activities." Officials believe he was radicalised in 2018 after "imbibing online propaganda on ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria]". The arrest was part of a crackdown during which Singapore authorities initiated counter-terrorism probes against 37 people, of whom 14 were Singaporeans and 23 foreigners, mostly Bangladeshis.

Earlier, in January 2016, 26 Bangladeshi construction workers who were supportive of global terror outfits Al Qaeda and Islamic State, were deported from Singapore to Bangladesh. The workers had discussed carrying out terrorist attacks upon returning to Bangladesh. According to reports, 14 of the 26, after their return, were jailed on terrorism charges, while the remaining 12 were released.

On May 10, 2020, Spain's national court in Madrid sentenced Ataul Haque, a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin, to seven years imprisonment for financing and supporting terrorism. Haque, the brother of the head of the Islamic State’s technological wing, Siful Haque Sujan (killed in a targeted US drone strike in Syria in 2015), had reportedly sent  47,000 euros from Spain to Bangladesh via China, using an informal channel known as “hundi”. Haque, was arrested in 2017 after his home in Merida in western Spain, was raided by the Police.

On May 5, 2019, Bangladeshi authorities arrested a Saudi Arabia-born Bangladeshi, Motaj Abdul Majid Kafiluddin Bepari, who returned to the country in February 2019, after fighting in Syria. According to the Police’s first information report of the case recorded under the Anti-Terrorism Act, Bepari and five or six unnamed people were accused of planning sabotage with different militant organisations to establish a Caliphate in Bangladesh after displacing the government.

Jihadist returnees are seen as a key challenge by the Bangladeshi authorities. Since the time of the Soviet War in Afghanistan to the latest Islamic State war zones, Bangladeshi fighters returning to their country bring back their own understanding of society and jihad, and eventually try to influence others in favour of establishing Sharia rule in the country.

Although Bangladesh has succeeded in maintaining a sustained peace, the roots of radical thought are still strong. There is a real danger that the extremist sentiment will be exploited by a radicalised Diaspora, both through the social media, and on the return of some elements, including ‘war returnees’ to the home country. Security and intelligence agencies will, consequently, be under constant pressure to identify and neutralise such elements, and to contain the activities of the Islamist extremist organisations that remain active in the country.

INDIA

Chhattisgrah: Bastar: Violence Escalates
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On December 4, 2020, a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre was killed in an exchange of fire with the Security Forces (SFs) in a forested area near Hakwa village under Gangaloor Police Station limits in Bijapur District, Chhattisgarh. The body of the Maoist, identified as Arjun, a ‘platoon commander’ of the Gangaloor ‘area committee’ of the Maoists, was recovered along with a firearm and explosives.

On December 2, 2020, two tribal villagers were abducted and subsequently killed by CPI-Maoist cadres in Kamkanar village in Bijapur District. The two victims, Sannu Uika and Sunil Boddu, from Kamkanar village, were being threatened by Maoists over the preceding few months, as they were suspected of supporting the Police.

On November 28, 2020, Nitin P. Balerao, an Assistant Commandant of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), the elite Commando wing of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), was killed and eight personnel, including the second-in-command Dinesh Kumar Singh, were injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast triggered by cadres of the CPI-Maoist in the Burkapal area in Sukma District.

According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the Bastar Division has accounted for at least 123 Maoist-linked fatalities (26 civilians, 35 SF personnel, and 62 Maoists) in the current year, thus far (data till December 13, 2020). During the corresponding period in 2019, the ‘division’ had recorded 102 fatalities (30 civilians, 18 SF personnel, and 54 Maoists). Through 2019, Maoist-linked fatalities in the Division totalled 107 [30 civilians, 18 SF personnel, and 59 Maoists].

The Bastar Division, considered to be the last bastion of the Maoists, spans over 40,000 square kilometers, and comprises of seven Districts – Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, and Sukma.

Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling statistics on Left Wing Extremism in India, the Bastar Division has registered at least 3,032 fatalities (787 civilians; 1,028 SF personnel; 1,195 Maoists; and 22 unspecified). The Bastar Division accounted for a whopping 90.72 per cent of the total fatalities recorded in the State (3,342, including 891 civilians; 1,129 SF personnel; 1,298 Maoists, and 24 unspecified (data till December 13, 2020).

After a low of 107 fatalities in the Division in 2019, there is evidence of an escalation of activities in 2020. An April 18, 2020, report revealed that the CPI-Maoist organised a gathering of people in their area of influence in Bastar, directing village headmen and others to part with the rations they received from the State Government during the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Abhishek Pallava, SP, Dantewada, thus disclosed,

The villagers were even thrashed publicly during the meeting to instil terror and are forced to comply with their diktat. Also, the Maoists continued to extort money from the local contractors and the collectors of minor forest products to meet their requirements.

Meanwhile, according to an October 9, 2020, report, the Maoists claimed to have executed 25 persons in Bijapur District in the last week of September 2020 [exact date not specified], including some of their key associates, branding them as 'secret agents, coverts and Police informers' operating for the Chhattisgarh Police. Accusing the State Police of building a network of such operatives to sabotage their movement, Vikalp, the 'official representative' of the CPI-Maoist Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, issued a statement declaring that "12 secret agents, five coverts and eight informers" in the Gangaloor area of Bijapur District were eliminated in the people's court, "based on credible evidence." In the statement of October 7, 2020, released to the press, Vikalp thus stated,

Importantly, SAMADHAN is the strategy announced on May 8, 2017, by the then Union Home Minister (UHM) Rajnath Singh to deal with Left Wing Extremism affected States across India. Significantly, the strategy has eight components: S - Smart Leadership; A - Aggressive Strategy; M - Motivation and Training; A - Actionable Intelligence, D - Dashboard Based Key Performance Indicators; H - Harnessing Technology: A - Action plan for each theatre; and N - No access to Financing.

Indeed, according to a November 16, 2020, report, to contain the LWE menace and to target the Maoist leadership by going after the ‘security blanket’ that surrounds it, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) agreed to deploy five additional battalions of the CRPF in Sukma and Bijapur Districts in the Bastar Division.

The ‘Central Committee’ of the CPI-Maoist is protected by the ‘Central Regional Command’ (CRC), and is most active in Sukma and Bijapur Districts. CRC’s ‘battalion 1’, is led by Maoist leader Madvi Hidma, who according to unconfirmed reports, has been promoted to the Central Committee.

An October 1, 2020, report stated that, in order to strengthen its hold in the Maoist strongholds, the Chhattisgarh Government was set to open eight new Police camps by the end of 2020, even as it faced protests against the move. According to the Government, the camps will come up in Dantewada, Kondagaon, Bijapur and Sukma Districts, as part of 15 Police camps that the Government plans to set up. Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Bastar, Sundarraj P., disclosed,

On September 4, 2020, State Director General of Police (DGP), D.M. Awasthi, asserted,

Around 60,000 personnel of the State Police and Paramilitary Forces are deployed in the seven Districts of Bastar Division.

The Maoists in the Bastar Division remains a major challenge for the State, as well as for the country. This is where the ‘final battle’ against the rebels is set to be won. The Maoists retain significant operational capacities in this region, though these have been substantially eroded by the Security Forces. Nevertheless, the area remains difficult, with the Maoists holding tenaciously on to their last surviving stronghold.