Bangladesh police arrests thousands in “anti-terror” operation

Over the past fortnight, Bangladesh police and paramilitary units have carried out a major “anti-terror” crackdown, arresting over 14,000 people. Those detained have been herded into temporary camps and police stations. According to media reports, some those arrested are being tortured to extract confessions.

Speaking on June 11, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her government would end the ongoing assassinations and attacks on secular bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners by Islamic radicals. “It may take time… but we will bring [the perpetrators] under control,” she said. “Where will the criminals hide? Each and every killer will be brought to book.”

Bangladesh Inspector General of Police A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque told the press that those arrested have been accused of firearms, narcotics and other offences. Thousands of police and paramilitary unit members are involved in the nation-wide repression.

The right-wing Bangladesh National Party (BNP) has accused the Hasina government of targeting political opponents of her regime. BNP leader Khalida Zia said over 2,000 of the party’s leaders and activists across the country had been arrested since the crackdown started.

Justifying the mass roundups, Nadeem Qadir from the Bangladesh High Commission in London, told the BBC: “During a major operation you don’t take chances. You do make a lot of arrests and then after the arrests are made you screen them.”

The Hasina government ordered the crackdown in response to international pressure, particularly from the US and India. Fifty people have been murdered since 2013, with the attacks intensifying this year. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al Qaeda, which are said to be working in South Asia, have claimed responsibility.

The Hasina government, which has refused to admit that ISIS or any group with international connections is involved, is targeting the opposition BNP and the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). Police have also claimed that Jamaat ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) are behind the murders.

Following the assassination of US Agency for International Development employee Xulhaz Mannan in April, US Secretary of State, John Kerry telephoned Prime Minister Hasina and “offered” Washington’s assistance in the investigation. Mannan’s friend, Tonmoi Mahbub, an actor, was also murdered.

A host of senior US officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal, have visited Dhaka to discuss the killings. Washington is concerned that the emergence of Islamic fundamentalist groups in Bangladesh hostile to the US and India, will destabilise Bangladesh and India, and impact on US preparations for war against China.

The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Bangladesh to halt the “arbitrary arrests.” It referred to media reports and said that “some of those detained are being made to pay bribes to secure their release...”

HRW cited one case where “police detained a youth, beat him up in custody, and then demanded a 100,000 taka ($US1,270) bribe, threatening otherwise to list him as a suspected fundamentalist.” It also said the Bangladesh security forces had a “history of impunity for torture and other custodial abuse” and there was “a real risk of harm during detention and interrogation.”

Justifying the mass arrests, Bangladesh police claimed it had captured around 200 suspected Islamic militants, including the killers of two bloggers. Sumon Hossain Patwari was accused of involvement in the murder of publisher Ahmed Rashid Tutul and injuring two writers. Another individual was accused of killing Avijith Roy, an American-Bangladesh blogger and writer, last year.

US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat last week told the media that she was concerned about whether the arrests were being “conducted in a transparent manner.” In other words, Washington has no objections to the mass arrests—which it has supported behind the scenes—but is concerned to keep up the pretence of concern for democratic rights.

India has openly backed the government crackdown in Bangladesh. Its external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, said: “The Bangladesh government is sparing no effort to stop the attacks. Sheikh Hasina has taken strong steps and Islamic leaders have condemned the killings.”

Swaraj was replying to concerns about the killing of a Hindu monastery worker Ranjan Pandey, 60, in northeastern Bangladesh on June 10 and death threats against a priest from the Ramakrishna Mission Dhaka. ISIS is said to have claimed responsibility for both incidents.

The US and India are determined to undercut Beijing’s influence on Dhaka and want to prevent ISIS, or other fundamentalist groupings, destabilising the situation in Bangladesh and complicating Washington’s geo-political agenda in the region.

Source URL