The impact of militancy

India is under-recognising the work of secular forces in its immediate neighbourhood at its own risk

Ashish Biswas Kolkata

India's policy response to political trends in Bangladesh is still much-talk-little-substance, never mind the hype about the new "Look East" approach. No wonder that a major political initiative by beleaguered secular forces in Bangladesh, the five million-people-long human chain on December 11 extending all along the spine of the country, went largely ignored in the Indian press.

"It is precisely this indifferent attitude towards our next door neighbour that has helped in the political takeover there by the Islamic fundamentalists, which is now costing us so much in geopolitical and economic terms in South Asia," says Bibhuti Bhushan Nandi, former Research and Analysis Wing analyst and specialist in foreign affairs.

The US and other countries, apart from closely monitoring events in Bangladesh, are providing moral support to secular forces there. In fact, initiatives like the human chain have been reported more extensively by the Western press than in India.

Also intriguing, from the point of view of geopolitical requirements, has been the role of the Indian business community. Big individual houses have been sending representatives to hobnob with ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) figures to work out deals in the energy sector. A major Indian group has promised the biggest foreign investment in Bangladesh, despite a clear message from the Indian government that it will do so "at its own risk". This group has not yet won the simplest official guarantee that gas will be made available.

And then there is the Bangladeshi Islamic fundamentalist issue that impacts India more than it realises. Along with the Jamat-e-Islami, the Islamic Oikya Jote (IOJ) is an ally of the ruling BNP. The IOJ chairperson, Azizul Haque, is also member of the advisory council of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HUJI), set up in 1992 with financial help from Osama bin Laden.

Prominent South Asia-watcher Bertil Lintner points out that the HUJI has been extremely active, sending a steady stream of recruits from Bangladesh and Rohingya Muslims along the Nepal-Pakistan-Afghanistan route for training in arms and subversion. These recruits also came from Pakistan and West Asia and were divided into Bengali, Urdu and Arabic linguistic subgroups. They fought Indian troops in Kashmir and in Kargil.

These recruits come mostly from the 60,000-odd madrassas in Bangladesh. The HUJI commands about 15,000 activists, who call themselves "Bangladeshi Taliban". They operate in 19 camps all over Bangladesh, not all of which are used for arms-training. According to Western media reports, these cadres were primarily responsible for the attack on Hindus after the 2001 Bangladeshi elections and the terror campaign against the Awami League, the Left parties, journalists and Muslim secularists.

India's monitoring of the Bangladeshi militant organisations is hampered by their use of camouflage and deception. Recently, a picture of Rohingya Muslims undergoing arms training in Myanmar was released internationally, with the motive of inspiring recruitment. When the picture was checked, it was learnt that the camp shown was actually in Bangladesh, close to the Cox's Bazaar area and the recruits were Bangladeshi.

The so-called Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) in Bangladesh has recently acquired arms like Chinese rocket launchers, light machineguns, AK-47 assault rifles, Claymore mines and other weaponry via Thailand. Sources say the members of the RSO are mostly not Rohingyas, but come from the Islamic Chhatra Shibir (ICS), known for its targeting of secular politicians and Leftists.

The militants move around Bangladesh with impunity. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's order to the police to arrest fundamentalist leader Bangla Bhai Siddique, who has declared that he won't take orders from women, was never carried out. Under international pressure, the BNP administration has started a cosmetic campaign against insignificant organisations such as the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, which has no al-Qaida or other links nor arms. Not a finger has been laid on the RSO.

It is in this context of acts of neighbourly omission that India must redefine its foreign policy objectives in Bangladesh and take steps accordingly. The fight for secularism and democracy in Bangladesh is of vital importance to India, in particular, and for the region, in general.