Shome Basu*
In 2016, South Asia was shocked when bombs ripped off, killing several at Dhaka’s upmarket Holey Artisan Bakery. The assailants, young men, came with matches, bombs, and automatic pistols. Twenty-four people among whom there were 17 foreigners including an Indian were brutally killed as Bangladesh’s Para Commandos were trying to defuse the situation.
Why Holy Artisan Bakery? Although it was in the upmarket Gulshan area of Dhaka thronged mostly by foreigners, the cafe had its roots in New York. The assailants wanted to terrorise and make the headlines that Bangladesh is not away from the radar of Jihad.
Yes, this last decade may have looked a bit calm as Bangladesh was rising in its GDP and its foreign relations with India improving, but the city of Dhaka has been a potboiler of liberals vs jihadis fighting. Often Islamist fundamentalists murdered liberal thinkers and police could do little thereafter.
People like Xulhaz Mannan and actor Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy were hacked to death for being gay. The blogger and rationalist, Abhijit Roy, knew little that his brief visit from the USA would end on the streets of Dhaka in a pool of blood. Much before Rajib Haider, another blogger was hacked to death by a young terrorist who had little remorse while beheading Rajib. The claims for these incidents were taken by a group called ABT (Ansarullah Bangla Team) which later would be the al-Qaida affiliate of AQIS.
In 2013, when the International Crime Tribunal pronounced the death sentence of Delaware Hossain Sayeedi, Bangladesh was divided. The courtroom cheered as did a large population in Dhaka. But the conviction of Delaware Hossain Sayeedi led to an uprising in Bangladesh which finally overturned the judgement by the Supreme Court as life imprisonment. This should have marked where Bangladesh was going. But the beginning was in the making for long.
Birth of Bangladesh & Hasina’s Legacy
Born out of violence with India’s help, Bengalis were seen as a race quite feeble. General Yahya Khan, seeing the initial protests in 1971, thought it was a law-and-order problem rather than the deep sentiment of language and identity that the students were protesting for. He brought Lt Gen Tikka Khan to Dhaka with the idea of pumping some bullets which would melt away such protests in the future. He proved to be wrong and the Eastern arm of Pakistan was cut off with the birth of Bangladesh.
Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, who was the founder of Bangladesh later brutally assassinated, wrote in his unfinished memoir, “It had become obvious that you could not fool the people of the country by cooking up slogans in the name of ‘Islam and Muslims’. Bengali Muslims loved their religion but could also be gullible to the people, who were interested in using Islam for political gains.”
He was killed along with 18 members of his family at his now gutted residence Dhanmondi 32 as India was celebrating its 28th Independence Day. His daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were in Germany then. Eventually, they made their way into India, escorted by R&AW then led by R N Kao, under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s guidance, and settled along with their families.
Hasina’s journey thus began. She had a long reign but she should have studied how in four years of the creation of Bangladesh her father became the enemy of those people for whom he was lashed in the prisons of Pakistan. The statement by him about keeping political Islam away from politics disfavoured him. The army and the fundamentalists saw his friendship with Indira Gandhi and India scornfully. His other famous statement “Dharma jar jar, Utsov sabre…” (Religion is personal but festivities are for all) with which he meant to keep the minorities especially the Hindus in Bangladesh. The fundamentalists couldn’t swallow such statements.
Rise of Jamaat-ul-Islami
The rise of Jamaat-ul-Islami Bangladesh (JIB) and its tentacles gave rise to a new dimension in politics. With Mujbur’s assassination, the country was taken over by an army man Zia Ur Rahman. He floated his new party BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party). Zia, who was with the Pakistan army, revolted in 1971. As some stories go, he was the first person on 17th March 1971 to proclaim Bangladesh as a free and independent nation. Zia took over after a coup and killed his commanding officer Lt Col Janjua of the Pakistan army.
The idea of SAARC was his brainchild though it got implemented in the ’80s. Zia Ur Rahman had an international outlook, but he also made significant changes to Bangladesh’s constitution. He removed the commitment to secularism that Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman had established, replacing it with “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim” (In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful). This move was intended to Islamize the constitution.
However, these changes did not protect Zia Ur Rahman from the country’s unstable political environment. In 1977, he was assassinated in a military coup. This led to General Ershad taking power, establishing a dictatorship, and overseeing a rise in fundamentalist political Islam.
Both Mujibur and Zia did not consolidate the villages where deep-rooted religious fundamentalism was breeding and the poor Bengalis relied a lot on that. With poverty and lack of education, the Maulvis and madrasas were mushrooming around Bangladesh. Meanwhile, along with Jamaat ul Islam, there was a rise of another militant group that was more dangerous and severely caustic towards liberalism.
On the evening of April 30th, Sheikh Maulana Abdus Salam held a public press conference at the National Press Club. Many reporters and photojournalists were present. During this event, Abdus Salam officially launched the militant Islamist organization Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HUJI-B).
Abdus Salam, who served as the group’s leader (Emir), had previously fought as a mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan War. Specifically, he was associated with the faction led by Afghanistan’s Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
HUJIB imposed Sharia law and beard for men, and burka for women. Villages abided by such laws. Meanwhile, Salam collaborated with a criminal Siddique ul-Islam alias Bangla Bhai (whose party Jagat Muslim Janata Bangladesh) would run kangaroo courts sentencing capital punishment by beheading for rape, an idea, which was seen as barbaric in the modern state. Reports state that while Abdus Salam was in Afghanistan he developed relations with the ISI. He got a supply of arms and resold them to the Indian militant outfits in the North East using the Chittagong coast and Chachar hills.
In 1990, General Ershad stepped down from power, and elections were announced. Ershad’s Jatiya Party lost these elections. This led to the formation of a caretaker government, which remained in place until the 2001 elections.
Rise of Khaleda Zia & Bangla Bhai Factor
Begum Khaleda Zia, the widow of President Zia Ur Rahman, emerged as a leading political figure. She and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won the elections. However, her victory was largely due to support from the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and fundamentalist groups led by figures like Abdus Salam and Bangla Bhai. These groups had become influential behind the scenes.
This power shift marked a departure from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s original vision for the country. A significant divide emerged in Dhaka between liberal thinkers and those seeking to impose Sharia law.
Violence became commonplace in Bangladesh. Incidents of rape, arson, attacks, and bombings occurred frequently. The state appeared to support parties that promoted violence, and unofficial courts emerged. Law enforcement and the military often turned a blind eye, giving the impression that the rule of law had broken down in the once-secular nation.
The constitutional changes initiated by President Zia Ur Rahman, which had moved the country away from secularism, were further entrenched during his wife Khaleda Zia’s time in power.
In all these years, the forgotten daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Hasina was campaigning with heart-wrenching stories of how her family was assassinated by the Islamic fundamentalists. She backed up her family’s assassination and Mujib’s ideology, took on Begam Khaled Zia and dictator Ershad, while reconstructing the Awami League, and kept BNP in tow, to win the 1996 elections.
Khaleda Zia initially appeared to be committed to improving relations with India. During her visit to India, she promised to enhance trade and increase people-to-people interactions between the two countries.
However, upon returning to Bangladesh, she faced pressure from Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JIB). The JIB pushed her to adopt a more anti-India stance. At the same time, Pakistan took advantage of this situation to increase its influence in Dhaka’s political landscape.
While people-to-people contacts between Bangladesh and India did increase as promised, the nature of these interactions was not entirely as envisioned. A significant portion of this increased movement consisted of Tablighi Jamaat members traveling to attend gatherings at the organization’s Markaz (center) in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area.
Meanwhile, Bangla Bhai and his compatriots were raging by killing Hindus and Awami League supporters in the villages proclaiming anti-Islam activities, ransacking, and looting. Songs were banned and the famous Udachi Cultural Centre in Jessore was attacked and branded “un-islamic”. BNP was running the government, but it was the Jamat and its small tentacles.
Bengalis réalised it too soon.
Sheikh Hasina’s Rise & The Iron Grip
Hasina was back in the saddle. Awami League and its student wing Chhatra League began gunning for Jamat and BNP party workers. India’s external intelligence agency R&AW took the opportunity to ramp up the operations and finally, Bangla Bhai was nabbed and hanged in 2007. Smuggling of cows and slaughter along the India-Bangladesh border became a business that still thrives though R&AW along with BSF apprehended many such notorious rackets along with the meat business running gun and narcotics shops. Some reports mentioned that drugs from Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle passed via Bangladesh, helped by the Jamat cadres to pass it further.
With the brief spell of a caretaker government in 2009, Sheikh Hasina came back. But now with an iron grip, she used the state’s intelligence agency NSI to corner and apprehend all possible political rivals including her archrival Khaleda Zia, journalist Shahidul Alam, and Nobel Laureate Professor Yunus. Cases were filed and many were jailed without any cases, rotting in the prisons.
What she focused on was the economy and the foreign policy of Bangladesh. With increased GDP, Bangladesh rose in the garment industry, though incidents like the havoc fire at Rana Plaza dented the country’s image. Her law and order didn’t improve. Attacks on liberal thinkers didn’t stop, nor did the police make an effort to enforce cases on the fundamentalists. Unlike her father, Sheikh Hasina recognized the political fault lines and the potential influence of these groups. However, she chose not to integrate them into the mainstream political landscape, in contrast to the approach taken by Khaleda Zia and risked consolidating them.
The Bangladesh army has a history of involvement in coups, a tendency that some argue reflects the influence of its parent nation, Pakistan. In 2009, a significant event occurred, when the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), a paramilitary force, mutinied. During this uprising, they killed their own Director General and several army officers. This act enraged the army, which subsequently took control of the situation by forcefully subduing the BDR and arresting around 6,000 BDR soldiers. In the aftermath, the BDR was disbanded and replaced by a new organization called the Border Guard Bangladesh.
Investigations into the mutiny reportedly pointed to involvement from Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), suggesting an attempt to destabilize Sheikh Hasina’s government. This should have served as a warning sign for Hasina about the potential threats to her administration.
However, critics argue that Hasina’s leadership style, which often involves emotional appeals about her family’s history and creating dramatic narratives, has been counterproductive. Some Bangladeshis have grown weary of this approach, feeling that she hasn’t moved past her trauma.
Meanwhile, the country faced economic challenges, with rising inflation and a job crisis affecting many citizens. In contrast to these struggles, Hasina’s government focused on showcasing infrastructure projects like the metro rail and the Chinese-built Padma Bridge. The latter project, while a significant engineering achievement, was controversial due to the forced evacuation of millions of people by the army to clear the way for construction.
The January 2024 elections in Bangladesh were highly controversial. The opposition parties boycotted the elections, and the United States expressed concerns about human rights issues. In this context, Sheikh Hasina’s party won a landslide victory, largely due to the lack of meaningful competition.
Following the elections, tensions escalated dramatically over a proposed quota bill. Hasina’s government, which had long focused on the legacy of the 1971 Liberation War (Mukhti Juddho) and the freedom fighters (Mukti Bahini), faced unprecedented opposition.
The 53-year-old nation experienced severe unrest. Hasina’s response to the protests was harsh, labeling the demonstrators as “razakars” (a term for collaborators with the Pakistani army in 1971) and terrorists. This rhetoric further inflamed the situation.
The government’s response to student protests was particularly severe, with some protesters reportedly being shot. Critics drew parallels between this crackdown and the Pakistani army’s brutal “Operation Searchlight” in 1971, a comparison that deeply resonated with many Bangladeshis.
As public outrage grew and calls for Hasina’s removal intensified, the situation became more complex. Militant groups affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) reportedly took advantage of the chaos to attack religious minorities.
The culmination of these events led to widespread demands for Hasina’s removal from power, leading to her ouster and hasty flight out of Bangladesh.
The Way Ahead & Indo-Bangladesh Relations
The future of Bangladesh stands at a critical juncture. The country’s people face important choices which will shape their nation’s path. If fundamentalist groups and the BNP gain power, it could create challenges for India in managing its borders and potentially marginalize the liberal Bengalis who initiated recent protests. Progressive Bengalis, particularly in Dhaka and other urban areas, have an opportunity to shape a new future that restores democracy while maintaining pluralism.
India needs to carefully position itself with the new government, considering its significant investments in Bangladesh, particularly in the power sector by Adani Group. Providing long-term asylum to Sheikh Hasina at Hindon airbase could be risky, as she’s now viewed as an ‘enemy of the state’ in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Modi’s close relationship with Hasina may complicate India’s position if the BNP comes to power.
There’s potential for renewing SAARC and creating a new roadmap for regional cooperation. India must consider the large number of Bangladeshi medical students, including many from Kashmir, in its policy decisions. If Bangladesh’s new government seeks Hasina’s extradition through Interpol, India could face a diplomatic dilemma.
India’s foreign policy approach should evolve. Focusing on personal relationships with leaders rather than broader country-to-country ties can be problematic. India should be mindful of Bangladeshi sensitivity to perceived economic dependence on India. The approach to neighbours should prioritise diplomacy and mutual respect over domestic political considerations.
Given the 7,000-kilometre long-shared border, India needs to leverage its intelligence and security apparatus to prevent anti-India elements from gaining influence in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s importance on the world stage has grown significantly. Once described as a “basket case” by Henry Kissinger, it has become a significant player in South Asia. Its national slogan “Joy Bangla” (Hail Bengal) has gained international recognition, underlining the country’s increasing importance.
*Shome Basu is a New Delhi-based journalist specialising in conflict and politics. Basu is also author of the book ‘Shades Of Kashmir’ that delves deep into the insurgency years.
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