Is Bangladesh emerging as new hub for terrorism

Washington, Aug 2 (UNI) Bangladesh is fast becoming a new hub for terrorism with a growing Islamic movement that has ties to the al-Qaida, says a top South Asia analyst.

''While the United States dithers, a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement linked to al-Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence agencies is steadily converting the strategically located nation of Bangladesh into a new regional hub for terrorist operations that reach into India and Southeast Asia,'' writes Selig Harrison in the Washington Post.

Disappointed that the Bush administration has yet to speak with comparable candor on the rising Islamic extremist movement in Bangladesh, Mr Harrison says the United States and other donors gave Bangladesh 1.4 billion dollars in aid last year. The US could use the aid leverage and trade concessions to promote a fair election by calling openly and forcefully for non-partisan control of the Election Commission and the caretaker Government.

In addition to implicitly threatening an aid cut-off if it is rebuffed, the administration should offer the powerful incentive of duty-free textile imports from Bangladesh if Prime Minister Khaleda Zia cooperates, Mr Harrison suggests in a bid to nudge the nation towards secular democracy.

In Pakistan, the United States has been lukewarm in pushing Gen Pervez Musharraf for democratic elections because it needs his ''limited support'' against al-Qaeda but what is the excuse for inaction in Bangladesh, where the incumbent Government coddles Islamic extremists and a strong secular party is ready to govern, he asks.

The seeds of Islamic extremism were sown when the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) forged ties with fundamentalist party Jamaat-e-Islami five years ago in order to win power and form a coalition Government. Since, Mr Harrison says, then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has looked the other way as the Jamaat has systematically filled sensitive civil service, police, intelligence and military posts with its sympathisers, who have in turn looked the other way as Jamaat-sponsored guerrilla squads patterned after the Taliban have operated with increasing impunity in many rural and urban areas.

To the dismay of her business supporters, the PM gave the coveted post of Industries Minister to Matiur Rahman Nizami, a high-ranking Jamaat official who has helped promote the growth of a Jamaat economic empire that embraces banking, insurance, trucking, pharmaceutical manufacturing, department stores, newspapers and TV stations.

Mr Harrison quoted a study last year by a leading Bangladeshi economist to say that the ''fundamentalist sector of the economy'' earns annual profits of some 1.2 billion dollar.

Now the BNP-Jamaat alliance is rigging the next national elections, scheduled for January, to prevent the return of the opposition Awami League to power. Voter lists are being manipulated, and the supposedly neutral caretaker Government and the commission that will run the election are being turned into puppets, according to Mr Harrison, a former South Asia bureau chief of The Post and the author of five books on South Asia.

The BNP argues that coalition rule helps moderates in the Jamaat to combat Islamic extremist factions. But the reality is that Jamaat inroads in the Government security machinery at all levels have triggered suicide bombings, political assassinations, harassment of the Hindu minority, and an unchecked influx of funds from Islamic charities in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf to Jamaat-oriented madrassas (religious schools) that in some cases are fronts for terrorist activity, says Mr Harrison who has covered Bangladesh since 1951.

Mr Harrison says the bitterness of Bangladeshi politics is often attributed to a personal vendetta between two strong women, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and the Awami League leader, Sheikh Hasina Wajed. But the roots of the current struggle go back to 1971, when Bengali East Pakistan, led by the Awami League, broke away from Punjabi-dominated West Pakistan to form the nation of Bangladesh.

The Jamaat, which originated in the western wing, opposed the independence movement and fought side by side with Pakistan forces against both fellow Bengalis and the Indian troops who intervened in the decisive final phase of the conflict.

For Pakistan's intelligence agencies, especially Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the legacy of the independence war has been a built-in network of agents within the Jamaat and its affiliates who can be utilised to harass India along its 2,500-mile border with Bangladesh.

In addition to supporting tribal separatist groups in north-east India, the ISI uses Bangladesh as a base for helping Islamic extremists inside India.

After the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai, a top Indian police official, K P Raghuvanshi, said his key suspects ''have connections with groups in Nepal and Bangladesh, which are directly or indirectly connected to Pakistan.'' What makes future prospects in Bangladesh especially alarming is that the Jamaat and its allies appear to be penetrating the higher ranks of the armed forces, Mr Harrison says.

UNI XC SI GC1916