Noted blogger assassinated: Ansar Bangla 7 - Who are they?

Dhaka, March 1: Last week in a shocking incident, noted blogger and atheist Avijit Roy was killed by a group of radicals. A Twitter message posted on the handle of a group calling itself Ansar Bangla-7 read, "target down."

As the world pays homage to the deceased blogger, the Ansar Bangla has already announced that it would target more such persons. But who are the Ansar Bangla-7. Are they a new outfit?

Who are the Ansar Bangla-7:

While many may believe that the Ansar Bangla-7 is a new outfit in Bangladesh, the fact is that it is just a pseudonymous organization of Jamaat-i-Islami.

Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials both in India and Bangladesh say that the Jamaat is operating under a new name.

The Jamaat, which is a staunch supporter of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has positioned itself politically.

However, it needs radical outfits such as the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh and the Ansar Bangla-7 to carry out its dirty work.

At no point in time does the Jamaat want to be branded as a terrorist outfit and hence it has created these various subsidiaries to propagate its radical school of thought.

The structural setup of the Ansar Bangla-7 is the same as the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen, Bangladesh. The Jamaat has managed to segregate its members into different wings.

While the JMB is designated to carry out terror attacks, the Ansar would go about carrying out killings like it did in the case of Roy.

The financial network and the logistics wing are all common. The Jamaat for each operation comes out with different names and this helps in confusing the investigators.

An Al-Qaeda link:

The Burdhwan episode and the killing of Avijit Roy are all indicators that the Jamaat is readying the stage for the Al-Qaeda in the Sub-Continent for a take over.

There is a turf war between the Al-Qaeda and the ISIS in the Sub-Continient and the Jamaat has always known to lean towards the former.

The Jamaat through its radical wings has been speaking about the Islamisation of the region. The killing of Roy aims at sending a message that they are keen on the implementation of a radical law in the region.

By carrying out such killings with loud messages, the Al-Qaeda and the Jamaat are going the ISIS way.

They have realized that the ISIS with its concept of the Islamic state or the Caliphate have attracted the attention of many.

In this backdrop the Intelligence Bureau says that there is bound to be a more intolerant approach by groups such as the Ansar and JMB.

Will Ansar Bangla-7 have an impact on India?

Intelligence agencies say that while there will be an attempt to radicalize a portion of India, the success rate would not be what they would be expecting.

There is a sense of disgust among a majority of the Indian Muslims towards such a radical school of thought. They would not want the Great Indian Constitution being replaced with the 16th century Sharia law.

However India also cannot take a very easy approach to the growth of the Jamaat. What we witnessed post Burdhwan was that a serious attempt was being made by the Jamaat to establish modules in West Bengal, Assam and also Bihar.

For the Intelligence agencies and the National Investigating Agency the problem is not with the local Muslims. A majority have shunned such mindless outfits.

It is the politics which keeps the pot boiling and these tactics of encouraging Bangladesh based groups are done to serve a vote bank.

OneIndia News