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Bangladesh can do much more

Four years ago Sheikh Hasina watched in horror as grenades went off as she was addressing supporters in Sylhet. The terror strike killed 24 people and injured more than 200. Now Sheikh Hasina, who will be sworn in Prime Minister on Monday, has the opportunity to make Bangladesh, and the region it shares with India, safer. The Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami, which attempted to assassinate her in August 2004, has carried out dozens of attacks in India. Along with terrorist organis ations like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, it has lent logistical support, funding, training, and cadre to terrorists in India. Khaleda Zia as Prime Minister led a coalition that included the ultra-right Jamaat-e-Islami. She responded to international and domestic concerns by authorising a crackdown on violent Islamist groups but the Jamaat was able to ensure that much of their infrastructure remained untouched. The caretaker regime installed by the military included elements hostile to both India and Bangladesh’s secular forces. Its man in charge of home affairs, Major-General M.A. Matin, attacked celebrations of the Bengali language day as a ‘Hindu cultural activity’ and went so far as to call Sheikh Hasina an Indian agent.

In August 2008, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) deported Jackson Arengh, a National Democratic Front of Bodoland terrorist who had spent four years in a Bangladesh jail. In September, the BDR handed over 18 All Tripura Tribal Force insurgents after the men had done three-year prison terms. However, such assistance was fitful. The Khaleda regime rarely targeted the groups that posed a significant threat to India. Anup Chetia, general secretary of the United Liberation Front of Asom, who was arrested in March 1998 on charges that earned him a seven-year prison term, has continued to enjoy sanctuary in Bangladesh after his release. The BNP-led regime was also reluctant to act against Islamist terrorists who often used Bangladesh as a launching station for covert action directed at India. Indian terrorists often transited through Dhaka on their way to training camps in Pakistan; and Bangladesh nationals recruited by these groups have been involved in operations against India. In 2006, Bangladesh authorities detained Faisal Haroon, a key Lashkar operative who helped set up the organisation’s Indian Ocean-rim networks — and quietly sent him home to Pakistan. ULFA is suspected to be behind Friday’s bomb blasts in Guwahati, which claimed five lives and injured about 50 people. What is clear is that rarely has the political situation in Bangladesh been as congenial as it is today for anti-terrorist cooperation with India.

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