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Terror in Dhaka: The beginning or the end?

July 10, 2016
Posted by: Team Clat Possible
Category: General Knowledge

As terror in Dhaka gripped the city in the form of a hostage crisis and killings at a prominent café (the Holey Artisan Bakery) in a diplomatic area, the ugly yet continuing threat of terrorism raised its head again. The scene was deplorable: A 12-hour siege of a café by terrorists, and 21 hostages as well as two policemen dead before security forces stormed into the cafe and ended the standoff. The tense standoff was reported live on many news channels.

Terror in Dhaka: An Indian Student among those killed

The tragedy touched closer home when it was reported that an Indian student was also among those killed by the terrorists. The harrowing details of her last call to her family, when the cafe was attacked, jolted many. While this was a different kind of attack on Bangladesh soil, deeper analysis reveals some disturbing trends.

There is a pattern in the attacks that have been carried out in recent times: targeting areas/spots frequented by tourists, (mis)using religion as a justification for the attack, (mis)using technology to perpetrate the attack and spread propaganda, and the most portent of all is conditioning the youth to participate in such activities. The attack has also reinforced the rising threat of extremism in Bangladesh, and as the authorities in Bangladesh themselves stated, this attack, unlike the previous ones which had been largely individual in nature, was one where home-grown terrorists coordinated and targeted a large group of people in a public place in an upscale area.

Intolerance in Bangladesh

There has been wide coverage of the growing “intolerance” in Bangladesh, with attacks and killings of people belonging to religious minorities or bloggers propagating ideas different from what extremists deem to be acceptable. This is not to say that Bangladesh is the only country suffering from this problem. There have been such instances even here at home in India, and the search for the culprits in many cases is still on.

What is interesting and increasingly discomfiting is that the suspects of the attack in this case were mostly well-educated and from relatively well-to-do families. This is contrary to the popular perception that such radicals are born through brainwashing youth from poorer backgrounds in madrassa-style institutions. One of the suspects was the son of a politician from the Awami League. The father had filed a report when his son went missing from the house in December but there was no trace of him nor did the family have an inkling of the fact that the son had become a terrorist. Authorities have also hinted that the very fact that these terrorists were sophisticated may have helped them blend in and carry out attacks in such a posh area.

Claimed responsibility of the attack

Another interesting aspect is that while the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack, the authorities in Bangladesh have stated that the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were behind the attack. The JMB is a local militant group in Bangladesh. This refutes the constant claims that IS has spread its forces across the world and the authorities continue to deny an organizational presence of the IS on their soil.

India has also become involved in investigating this issue because the name of an Islamic “preacher”, Dr. Zakir Naik, has come up, with reports that at least two of the suspects in the attack were “inspired” by his speeches and ideas. At the time of writing, Naik is still being investigated. He has been banned from travelling to some countries before and orders have been issued against broadcast of his channel. The problem is that even though authorities are aware of the dangerous ideas being spread through his speeches, social media accounts and television channel, there is no legal backing to bring him to book yet.

The attack, however, will not be remembered solely for the inhumane act that it was. What stood out was the acts of kindness, humanity and courage by many, who dared to look death in the face and stand up for what was right. When the terrorists gave a Muslim student the chance to leave safely but without his two friends, females who were wearing Western clothes, the student chose to remain with his friends and was killed. Another woman was killed because she was not wearing a hijab and when asked to recite a verse from the Holy Quran, she refused to do so.

The attack has left investigators, families of innocent victims and many across the world paralyzed with a sense of helplessness. But proper investigation into the attacks will be a key to ascertaining not only the identity of the culprits but also the strategies they are using to proliferate terror and how they may be stopped.