Mohammad Jamil
Bangladesh on Sunday blamed “homegrown” Islamist terrorists for the country’s worst terror attack in which 20 hostages were hacked to death, ruling out the role of the Islamic State. “Let me clear it again, there are no ISIS or al-Qaeda presence or existence in Bangladesh…the hostage-takers were all home-grown terrorists not members of ISIS or any other international Islamist outfits,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman
Khan told PTI. It was a categorical statement from the Bangladeshi Home Minister, yet Indian media had quoted him as saying that Pakistan and the ISI were behind the terror attack on the café. They must have done after the nod of the Modi government, which wants to spoil relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh. But this time around it stands exposed. Since Narendra Modi is at the helm, Indian government is trying to create rifts between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Iran and Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has debunked Indian media claims that Bangladesh blames Pakistan and ISI for terror attack on a restaurant. Advisor to Bangladesh Prime Minister Gauhar Rivi in a telephone call to the Pakistan High Commissioner in Dhaka Shuja Alam denied having given a statement blaming Pakistan spy agency ISI for the attack. “The statement is utter nonsense,” he said, adding that he had not spoken to any news channel over the issue. Earlier the NDTV, India Today, Daily Indian Express and several other news websites had quoted him blaming ISI for the attack. Bangladesh on Sunday said the attackers who slaughtered 20 hostages at a restaurant were well-educated followers of a homegrown militant outfit who found extremism “fashionable”, denying links to the Islamic State. Despite the ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack at the café, the BD government insists that international jihadist networks had not gained a foothold in Bangladesh.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killing of the hostages, mostly foreigners, and two police officers during an 11-hour siege that ended yesterday after the army stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery popular with expats in the diplomatic zone, killing six attackers and capturing one alive. Indian media had quoted Hossain Toufique Imam, the political advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina having stated that the Pakistan and ISI were involved. Toufique Imam in fact had said that the way in which the hostages were killed with machetes suggests the role of a local terrorist group – the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. A police source was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune that all the attackers were Bangladeshi nationals aged between 20 and 28. Police said the attackers were well-educated and most came from rich families; all of them were students and communicated at the crime scene in both Bengali and English.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told AFP the killers – six of whom were shot dead in the siege – were members of the homegrown militant outfit Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a group banned over a decade ago.”They have no connections with the Islamic State,” Khan said. National Police Chief Shahidul Haque told reporters that investigators would explore the possibility of “an international link” but added that “primarily, we suspect they are JMB members”. The bodies of 20 hostages were found in pools of blood after commandos stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe to end the standoff, in which two policemen were also shot dead in a fierce gun battle at its outset. Six of the gunmen were killed by the commandos in the final stages of the siege, but one was taken alive and was being interrogated by Bangladeshi intelligence.
Indian intelligence agency RAW’s activities have increased in Pakistan since Narendra Modi’s election as Prime Minister. However, Pakistan’s intelligence and secret agencies have increased their efforts against the enemies of the country and have achieved great success by arresting a number of RAW agents from Punjab and elsewhere, who were tasked to make economic corridor project a failure. They also smashed a network of more than twelve RAW operatives in Punjab. In addition to supporting its proxies in FATA, Balochistan (Quetta), Sindh (Karachi), RAW is now focusing on Punjab. Last year, its operatives were arrested from eight districts of Punjab in separate swoops in Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Multan, Okara, Kasur, Lahore and Sialkot. RAW’s operative Ilyas with pseudonym of Pervez is reportedly RAW’s master spy from Baseen, a village near Wagah border, who has revealed details about Indian secret service on Pakistani soil.
One does not need proof for India’s hand behind Pakistan’s disintegration. During his visit to Bangladesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had received the Award of Liberation War Honour on behalf of Vajpayee. Former prime minister A.B. Vajpayee was then an MP from Jan Sangh, who had been vocal in his support to the liberation war in the 1970s and had also campaigned for recognition of Bangladesh. Yet Pakistan had been expecting some good during Vajpayee’s tenure as prime minister that his government would hold serious and sincere dialogue with Pakistan to resolve the disputes. At the award ceremony, Narendra Modi said that when freedom fighters of Bangladesh were shedding blood, Indians too were fighting side-by-side with them, and in a way helped realize the dream of Bangladesh. He admitted that he was one of the young volunteers who participated in a Satyagraha launched by Jan Sangh to support Bangladeshi freedom fighters in 1971.
