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Bangladesh, a civilised country practising democracy, has finally become the hot target of Islamic militants. The attacks of the extremists were launched for the purpose of implementing Islamic rule, according to a member of the suicide squad of the JMB arrested for this connection. Suicide squads, a deadly form of terrorism, now start to create havoc in the country. If the series of blasts across the country on 17 August in 63 districts were termed as a dress rehearsal, then the ongoing attacks on court premises and security personnel are the final showdown. During the SAARC summit the whole of Bangladesh was covered by a security blanket and large numbers of members of law enforcing agencies were mobilized. People whole-heartedly accepted the initiative, as the flawless arrangement of summit was the top most priority. But what happened later on?
   The country is turning into a living hell where not a single place is secure. If such forms of attack continue, then what will be the measures to stop them? Nothing, actually, because our country lacks the expertise to stop these deadly forms of terrorism. Innocent people are losing lives.
   After every threat or attack, strong security measures are taken at important places, security beefed up in the diplomatic zone. But people who need the security curtain are left unprotected. Then, what’s the use of such deployment that is incapable of providing security to the larger body of
   citizens?
   Shafqat Rana Sayed
   Department of Economics and Social Science
   BRAC University, Dhaka

Eight years have passed since the signing of the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord. Still there is no peace or a real solution in the CHT. The CHT accord was signed on 2 December 1997 in Dhaka between the then Awami League government and the JSS or Jana Samhati Samiti. In the accord there are many exalted words and phrases, but the reality is it has no implementing capability attached to it because of the complex administrative formation in CHT. As Sakhawat Hossain, a security expert, recently said at a meeting, the ‘signing of the treaty was nothing but doing some formalities. It should have been signed after more study and discussion’ (ref New Age, 30 November, 2005). We also think that the CHT accord was signed so quickly that those who did it did not even think about the implementation problems involved.
   At present, in the CHT there are more than six administrative units running parallel. These are:
   (1) The District Commissioner (DC) running the central administration.
   (2) The CHT ministry affairs run by deputy minister Mani Swapan Dewan.
   (3) The CHT development board, the economical lever in the CHT, run by the chairman Wadud Bhuiyan MP.
   (4) The military also has authoritative status under ‘Operation Uttaran’.
   (5) The CHT regional and district councils also exercise power.
   (6) The three chiefs of the Chakma, Bhomang and the Mong tribes also have some powers.
   (7) The elected parliament member or MP exercises some powers on his own.
   The problem with these authorities is that there are no uniform rules or regulations to oversee their functions. Now the fate of the CHT accord is at stake. Unless the CHT administrative authority is uniformly formed there will be problems in implementing the CHT accord.
   The other thing is the Jumma people in the CHT do not think that the CHT accord fulfilled all their demands. So they are now under the leadership of the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), a political party based in the CHT and demanding full autonomy for the ethnic group. Full autonomy means, the Jumma people will have control over all matters relating to the welfare of the Jumma people. We hope the government’s attitude towards the CHT people will be friendly.
   Mithun Chakma
   Dhaka

I have just viewed the popular talk show ‘Tritiomatra’ telecast by TV channel Channel-I in which Barrister Rokonuddin Mahmud and Maj Gen M. Ibrahim, Bir Protik, participated. At the outset I must thank the conductor of the show, Zillur Rahman, and the distinguished participants for their frank, honest and thought provoking comments, statements and suggestions. I am not writing this letter to pass any comment on the show which I, and many others like me, have enjoyed thoroughly. I write this letter to highlight one statement which Barrister Ahmed made during the talk. He said that in 1969 the then president of Pakistan Field Marshal Ayub Khan, one of the most infamous autocratic military rulers of Pakistan, bowed down to the opposition demand and called for a round table conference with the leaders of the political parties in the opposition. He even withdrew the ‘Agartala Conspiracy’ case against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to enable him to attend the conference. Finally he resigned and handed over power to Gen Yahya Khan, the then army chief of Pakistan. Ayub Khan, in spite of all his negative qualities as a politician, took all these historic steps in the greater national interest. How could Ayub Khan take all these steps? How could he invite his arch political adversary Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to sit with him at the same table? The answer is, Ayub Khan did not become a leader by chance. He had had long experience of leadership for more than thirty years. From a (West) Pakistani point of view he was a patriot. Because of his education, training and grooming he could manage his office with wisdom.
   Coming back to the subject under discussion, we find that the heads of our two leading political parties, that is, Begum Zia and Sheikh Hasina, not to speak of sitting at one table to discuss any grave national issue, are not even agreeable to see each other’s face. In this respect, both are different from Ayub Khan because none of these two leading ladies was educated, trained and groomed to hold their present positions. It is providence which catapulted them to these positions. Both of them lack the political wisdom and maturity necessary to lead a government.
   Ashraf
   Arizona, US

The economic effects of the rise of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh are multifarious. The effects could encompass the opportunity cost of the militancy, the economic impact of the law-enforcing expenditures (on both combatants), financing mechanisms (both national and international) of the militant movement, and the impact of possible economic sanctions on the government for the apparent loss of command to contain militancy etc. We should focus on a few selected important aspects of the economic effects that are: a. the relationship between economic growth and Islamic militancy, b. the competition between social expenditures and law-enforcing expenditures, c. the law-enforcing expenditures of Bangladesh in comparison to other South Asian countries and some other internal conflict-ridden countries around the globe, and d. the economic implications of the labour-intensive law-enforcing strategy that Bangladesh is following now.
   We must identify the trade-offs between Islamic militancy and economic growth in Bangladesh by comparing and contrasting the law-enforcing expenditure with the social expenditures of Bangladesh. To gain a wider sense of perspective, this trade-off is also compared and contrasted with other countries in South Asia and with other selected internal conflict-ridden countries in the developing world. We also take into consideration the cost-effectiveness of the labour-intensive law-enforcing strategy pursued in Bangladesh.
   One of the primary reasons for this predicament of the Bangladesh economy is the pressing need to increase law-enforcing expenditure. The ever-expanding costs are attributed to a labour-intensive law-enforcing strategy pursued by successive governments. The high economic cost of the ‘invisible’ war in Bangladesh is unsustainable in the long run, and therefore the political resolution of the militancy is a sine qua non for the economic prosperity of the country.
   Sirajul Islam
   Shyamoli, Dhaka

Two more bomb attacks carried out on 29 November 2005 have killed at least 9 persons, reportedly by suicide attackers to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh. In their view, the Muslims of Bangladesh do not know Islam and therefore they have taken up the duty of establishing Islam afresh. If they know Islam better and continue to commit suicide, the matter of who will teach people Islam is a big question. If they perceive new thoughts about Islam they should let people know their ideas. Without announcement and protest they cannot justify their claim as being right. Before taking the decision of suicide they should know that Islam has forbidden suicide. Is there any Muslim to challenge this teaching of Islam? Those who do not know Islam pretend to rule 14 crore Muslims. Allah has created human beings, the best of all His creations, and fake Islamists have taken up the duty of killing them. A Muslim cannot support this action.
   This is absolutely something other than Islam, and Islam has nothing to do with it. It can be termed as grimy politics through using the name of Islam and only the enemies of Islam will agree with it.
   Our leaders have already proved their proficiency in hate-spreading entertainment game. They should now stop such tournaments until further notice; instead, the authorities should go for searching for trustworthy person who are believed to be confident and qualified in handling critical national issues with full security assurances. Usually a person will never feel safe to deal with secret matters unless formal assurance is confirmed. S/he should be assigned the job of communicating with controversial source persons with the intention of drawing up a process of mitigation of the crisis and government persons have to keep a sharp eye on developments. Untrained persons should be forbidden to make any comments or enter offices that deal with secret matters.
   The speeches of ruling party leaders are ridiculous and compel us to believe that they are far removed from the adequate sense of recognizing the realities in the country.
   Only capable person(s) should talk on the subject; otherwise they should stop talking nonsense in public. All parties have to show an eagerness to sit on a common platform to sort out a common formula. It is time for the Jamaat-e-Islami to remove the clouds of doubt from its political manifesto. Once its former ameer declared that he would not work under the leadership of a woman. The Jamaat-e-Islami had to remove him for creating an alliance with the BNP in spite of significant differences between the two parties. It was a sign of change in party morals. Yet they have to do something more. Practically the Jamaatis are no more a fanatical political party and deal with a moderate ideology. Accordingly they have to correct their party manifesto. At the same time Jamaat-e-Islami should express their gratefulness to people for accepting it at the last general election and a declaration should come from its leadership that they have corrected their political mission and repented for the role they played in 1971. I think it is a demand of the times.
   M Hoque
   On e-mail

The people who have blown themselves up to kill innocent people in Bangladesh do not belong to any religion. They are doing the most irreligious things in the name of religion. Islam is a religion of peace. Islam is derived from the root SALAM (SLM) which signifies in its substantive form peace and security. Islam in the causative form of the root means putting one’s self in peace and security (as opposed to chaos and rebellion) in his relation to the Creator and His creation. One connotative sense of the word is submission. What these crazy and fanatical people are doing is anything but Islamic. Their action is not in any way promoting peace or Islam for that matter. They may call themselves Muslims or whatever they wish to denominate themselves to be. But they cannot belong to the fold of any religion, let alone Islam. Their action does not reflect the sprit and word of Islam nor does it represent the theme of what constitutes age-old Bengali-ness. The people of this part of the world embraced Islam to shake off the social and economic discrimination suffered through centuries under the yoke of the caste system, maintaining all the while the peaceful messages of Buddhism and the Sanaton Dharmo without rejecting their cultural heritage.
   This suicide bombing craze has not grown out of Islam or the Bengali ethos. It is a continuation of Wahhabism and ‘Taliban-ocracy’ promoted by Arab petrodollars through the direct complicity of the American empire. So this suicide phenomenon is not the political or religious problem of Bangladesh. Our nation is in crisis now but this threat is commonly shared by the entire world.
   Now it is high time that Bangladeshi politicians stopped blaming each other. We cannot afford this blame game if we want to sustain the statehood of Bangladesh. Constant, concerted vigilance and educational enlightenment from the intelligentsia and the civil society must prevail. We cannot and should not behave like the Americans by letting ourselves be controlled by chaos, anger and fear. Let us all fight the menace by acting as Bengalis and by behaving like Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists from our respective positions. Let us not let this irreligiosity of the terrorists prevail. Together let us play by the rules of prudence and fortitude to make the collective conscience win and so help humanity pull us through our darkest crisis.
   We love Bangladesh. Our fathers and forefathers dtruggled too hard to let such cowards take away all that has been achieved for their children. The killing of oneself and the innocent is the final epitaph of the weak and cowardly. The struggle for peace is a long, difficult, complicated and constant path, it is the path of honest, steadfast heroes.
   Masud Rana Sarker
   On e-mail

The two suicide bombings in Bangladesh have rocked the political foundation of this country. It has put to shame all for which our people laid down their lives in 1971. A country that has had the pride of position as the most liberal part of South Asia historically has fallen to the depths of despair. Unlike Pakistan , for example, where there is a clear support for the creation of an Islamic state in its military bureaucratic establishment as well as among the people, in Bangladesh the Islamists are on the fringe of our society who have been traditionally kept out of political power by a conservative yet politically liberal electorate. The despicable role of the Islamists in 1971 had made sure that they would never be able to make a claim at power ever.
   Unfortunately, then came the BNP/Jamaat alliance in the period of the AL rule and then its victory in the 2001 elections. Thereafter, the BNP, beholden to the Jamaat and convinced that so long as the alliance remained intact the AL would remain out of power, allowed the Jamaat and the Islam based parties to do practically whatever they liked in building their cadres and they did this with impunity. Then certain sections in the BNP used these Islamic elements in the north to deal with their political foes, like the Sarbaharas. The nexus of a deep political folly was born in full view of the prime minister who was told, and which she naively believed, that all the talk of rising fundamentalism was part of an Awami League conspiracy. Her naivety and the narrow political interests of some people in her party created the Frankenstein that has turned its full course with the suicide bombings.
   It is time for the prime minister to wake up from her slumber for it is not the AL that she should fear but enemies of the government and the country who are sitting very near to her. After all these incidents, the Jamaat leader Nizami had the cheek to say that the suicide bombings were the work of the opposition!! Begum Zia should rethink her arbitrary action to oust Abu Hena from the BNP and have a sitting with him and listen to what he has to say. I really don’t know what those who are advising the Prime Minister are telling her. The truth is a very simple one. She needs to tackle this growing cancer as if her own life depends on it, for if she thinks that her electoral alliance with the Jaamat and the Islam based parties is more important than the country, then she should know that without tackling the Islamist partners, the country will slide to a position where there will not be any election to fight. The time to warn the perpetrators of the dastardly acts is gone; it is time to act, Madam Prime Minister, for the cancer that people in your party have sustained by creating the Islamist monsters is now fast spreading beyond control. Time to act is now of the essence. Madam Prime Minister, please put your urge for power aside and think of the country whose fate is at this moment in your unsafe hands.
   Shahjahan Ahmed
   Dhanmandi, Dhaka

Bangladesh is in a state of absolute disarray again. And nobody should be surprised. The world itself is going through an upheaval and anarchic situation. Bangladesh is surrounded by or situated near countries which are also embroiled in similar situations. It is hard to believe Bangladesh can eschew the tumultuous condition that pervades those countries.
   The recent violent and gory incidents only remind us of the world we live in. Make no mistake, we are just experiencing the spillover of all the horrible happenings that engulf a substantial part of the world. It will be inapt and, possibly, unwise to separate what is occurring in Bangladesh from that. It has got a global dimension which is beyond our control to influence. As such, it is not expected to disappear overnight.
   However, that is not the only reason. It definitely plays an important part in exacerbating the problem but there could be other contributing reasons. We have to analyse it in a fair, dispassionate and apolitical manner.
   For starters, we have to find the people who are inspiring and sponsoring these simpletons in committing such heinous crimes. There is no doubt they are being indoctrinated, trained and funded by some bigwigs who are still at large. Until and unless the masterminds are identified, caught and punished, there cannot be any let-up in this sort of violence and anarchy. We need to uncover their motivation. We need to ferret out their abode where they conceive, map out, test and refine their wicked schemes. We have to nix their plans before they can be deployed with disastrous consequences.
   There are plenty of punditry and numerous analyses on this issue, which only regurgitate the warmed-over, wooden and stale rationale: these people are acting against our independence with the support of the government, are throwbacks to the 1971 razakars, albadars, etc. They are barking up the wrong tree. Painting this problem in such black and white terms will be missing the point by a mile.
   Although it is by no means proved, nevertheless it is hard to believe they could mount and execute such a plan without some sort of outside help. It is still quite plausible they could be run, managed and tutored by inimical forces striving to destabilize the country just a few months before the expected parliamentary election. One cannot discount the association between the spike in these activities and the forthcoming election.
   That said, all of us, including the government and the opposition, should combine and send a sharp, unequivocal and loud message to the would-be wrongdoers that whatever they do, they are bound to fail. There is no alternative to the unity of the political parties at least on this major problem. There should not be any blame game. Otherwise, it will devour and demolish everyone. If unattended and unsolved, the problem will come home to roost and everybody will suffer.
   However, given past experience and recent pronouncements from different leaders — both government and opposition — it might be futile and delusional to hope for such an outcome. Still, let us hope they will come round and take in the seriousness of the problem and show prudence and be united against all acts of violence.
   Arif
   Sydney, Australia