Dhaka strike: Bangladesh's political class needs to display more maturity in handling terror

The Islamic State (IS) claiming credit for the attack in Dhaka was on expected lines. The outfit makes it a point to quickly claim credit as this part of their propaganda and so called global outreach programme. Intelligence Bureau officials in India say that it could be the ISIS or a splinter group which could have carried out the strikes. [Dhaka: The writing was on the wall]

The IS clearly wants the credit as it has been for sometime now trying to establish its foot print in Bangladesh. The government in Bangladesh however has constantly denied the presence of the outfit.

A wake up call:

The political class in Bangladesh has at times acted immature to the threats being posed by numerous terrorist outfits. The ruling party appeared to be more interested in pointing a finger at the BNP. [Kolkata put on high alert]

Bangladesh has witnessed killings on a daily basis. Threats by global outfits such as the IS and the al-Qaeda have been issued on a regular basis, but there continues to be denial.

Let us date back to an interview given by Bangladesh's Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu. To the rising threat of extremism, he was quick to point a finger at the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami. [What India's dossier to Bangladesh had said]

The answer is very simple. The Producer is the BNP. The Director is JI. The small actors on the ground are ABT, JMB, he added. He further went on to state that claims by the ISIS were fictitious in nature.
Bangladesh has been a problematic zone for a long time. There were outfits such as the Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami which thrived in Bangladesh.

While the government has been cracking down on extremism, it also needs to understand the rising threat of the global outfits such as the al-Qaeda and the ISIS. These outfits have been relying on splinter groups to establish themselves. Moreover these outfits quickly claim credit for an attack and this becomes a problem as it as an inspiration for others across the world to carry out similar strikes.

There have been a number of low grade attacks in Bangladesh. While these appeared to be one off incidents at first, it gradually became a trend to target bloggers and minorities. While the government claims that it has acted against over 2,700 extremists, the fact is that the country's internal security is in disarray.

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