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Wanton killings plague Bangladesh as government turns deaf ear

SINGAPORE — Bangladesh has been rocked by brutal killings of secularists and liberals accused of having defamed Islam or engaging in alternative lifestyles against the tenets of the religion, raising worrying questions about whether the secular traditions of the moderate Muslim country are under threat.

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SINGAPORE — Bangladesh has been rocked by brutal killings of secularists and liberals accused of having defamed Islam or engaging in alternative lifestyles against the tenets of the religion, raising worrying questions about whether the secular traditions of the moderate Muslim country are under threat.

The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the grisly murder of a Hindu tailor on Saturday — the man allegedly made defamatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed several years ago. Last week, a rallying figure for Bangladesh’s marginalised lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was slain with Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent claiming responsibility.

The Bangladeshi government, however, says these transnational jihadist movements have no presence in the country and points the finger at homegrown militant groups. The Prime Minister has blamed the murders on the opposition parties, saying they have “been engaged in such secret and heinous murders to destabilise the country”. Families of victims complain of slow and ineffective police investigations.

According to analysts who spoke with TODAY, Dhaka is overly sanguine about the presence of IS in the country when it can do better to investigate and prevent extremism.

“At the very least, there must be, in my assessment, cells of IS sympathisers and clusters that have been influenced by the extremist IS and Al Qaeda ideology,” said Associate Professor Kumar Ramakrishna, a security expert at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

“IS ideology enables homegrown extremists to see their domestic struggles as part of a wider global conflict between IS and the Western, secular world. I believe if the government in Dhaka can show more explicit political will in investigating the extent and spread of IS extremism, this will have positive knock-on effects on police investigations as well, down the line.”

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, a principal research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), stressed that the recent attacks “must be more than wake-up calls” for the authorities. “Even if there is no proof of the existence of IS or Al Qaeda on Bangladeshi soil, the killers are most likely to have been inspired by their negative ideologies, as self-proclaimed franchises or otherwise,” said Dr Chowdhury, who is a former Bangladeshi foreign minister.

A lack of professionalism in policing and counter-terrorism in Bangladesh has also translated into a favourable environment for extremist groups to grow, said Mr Iftekharul Bashar, associate research fellow at RSIS’ International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.

“Police are overstretched and there is a lack of proper counter-terrorism training,” he said.

“The prison system is extremely corrupt and is often exploited by terrorists and extremists. The country does not have a terrorist rehabilitation programme.”

Adding fuel to fire is the political infighting at the national level between the government and opposition.

The partisan conflict has contributed to the relatively slow pace of counter-terrorism efforts, said Dr Ramakrishna.

On Sunday, Bangladeshi police detained three men in connection with the killing of the Hindu tailor. The detained men were a secretary of the local affiliate of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party; a local activist with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, another opposition party which has held power in the past; and the principal of a local madrasah. Both parties have been accused of criminal activity in the past, including torching vehicles and killing people, according to the police.

Some analysts posit that the series of killings are linked to a controversial war crimes tribunal that has executed over the past three years top leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party for alleged atrocities in the country’s 1971 war of independence.

The country’s inadequate response has raised international concerns. United States Secretary of State John Kerry called Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last Thursday, urging Bangladesh to protect those at risk.

He also offered US support for the investigation into the slaying last week of Xulhaz Mannan, the gay rights activist and US Agency for International Development employee who was allegedly killed by Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.

A broader concern for Washington is that transnational jihadist groups could gain a foothold in Bangladesh despite the nation’s traditions of secularism, free speech and respect for its Christian and Hindu minorities.

At least 30 members of religious minorities, secular bloggers and other liberal activists, foreigners and intellectuals have been murdered in the past three years.

Bangladeshi police are currently investigating a new hit-list that includes the head of a university, journalists and ruling party officials.

Police said on Tuesday they were taking seriously the threat to kill 10 people listed in a leaflet that was sent to a press club in the north-western town of Natore on Monday by a hitherto unknown group. Among those named was the head of Rajshahi University, where a liberal professor was hacked to death by suspected Islamists less than two weeks ago.

“The deeply divided political system must bridge their differences on the issue of fundamentalist terror and act as a single polity,” said Dr Chowdhury.

“The vibrant civil society of Bangladesh and the clerics must cooperate to formulate a powerful counter-narrative to the aberrant radical thinking, as ideas must be fought with ideas. The ‘zero tolerance’ of violent extremism must be translated from rhetoric to practice.” AGENCIES WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KIM SO-HYUN

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