The Grenade blasts of August 21 would further mar the smudged image of Bangladesh

A.H. Jaffor Ullah

On August 21, 2004, hand grenades were lobbed in an opposition rally in Dhaka in which about 7 to 10 meeting attendees were killed and an estimated one hundred or more party workers and bystanders were injured.  This vicious incident was widely reported in the Internet news sites by various news agencies such as BBC, Reuters, AP, etc.  The present government of Bangladesh, which includes two sworn Islamists, is so finicky about the “good” outwardly image of the nation that it always cry out saying some elements of the Bangladesh society are bent on marring the “good” image of our peace-loving tranquil nation.  But the Prime Minister and her trusted lieutenants give a blind eye to the fact that the incidences of grenade blasting like the one that just happened on Saturday (August 21, 2004) give the credence to the fact that Bangladesh has become one of the most dangerous places on earth to live.  Thanks to the growing trend of religious fanaticism and the rise in obscurantism for transforming an otherwise peaceful agrarian society into an outright violent one.

The spate of throwing homemade bombs and hand grenades among the gatherings of opposition politicians, cultural soirees, Bangla New Year’s party, Christian Church, Sufi Shrines, etc., had risen dramatically in the last 5-6 years.  From a cursory look, it follows that Islamists do these blasts following their carefully wrought plan.  I am yet to hear any incidence of grenade attack or bomb blast in a meeting or a rally organized by Jamaat, Islamic Oikyo Jot, or even by BNP.  These days, Khaleda Zia’s party, BNP, is in cahoots with the Islamic parties in managing the day-to-day affair of the impoverished nation.  The grenade throwers know who are their enemy.  Thus, they spare BNP politicians and their followers.  It has not escaped the rapt attention of many Bangladesh citizens that only secularists and diplomats of the countries that aided George Bush to wage war against Iraq are at the receiving end of the grenade blasts. 

The grenade throwers have waged their jihad against the saner element of Bangladesh society because they know that these folks (read secularists) would resist any move by the obscurantists to take the nation to the path of religious extremism.  On January 1, 2001, I read news in Dhaka’s English newspaper that Bangladesh’s High Court gave their verdict to ban all kinds of fatwas.  No sooner had the two High Court Judges offer their verdict, a handful of Islamists belonging to Islamic Oikyo Jot, the member of Khaleda Zia’s political alliance, had offered fatwa declaring the two judges a murtaad or apostate.  In Islam, apostates are easy prey to religious killers.  Things for sure are out of kilter in Bangladesh.  Or else, how dare a bunch of obscure kathmullahs, muftis, and “practitioners of Islam” offer their fatwa against three very bright professors of Dhaka University?  It is an insult to every sensible citizens of this impoverished nation of 140 million.  The good sense has taken the back seat, undoubtedly.  Now, we hear that several powerful hand grenades were lobbed from tall buildings near the venue where Sheikh Hasina was holding a protest meeting with her party members.  According to several news reports, as Sheikh Hasina finished her speech and were descending from the truck, which served as the podium, several hand grenades were lobbed aimed at her.  Lucky for Sheikh Hasina that she came out alive from the grenade attack but at the cost of 7-10 of her party followers who took the brunt of the blast.  Her followers formed a body shield to protect her and in the process, several Awami League activists had succumbed to death.  This is not the first time that Sheikh Hasina was targeted for assassination.  The way things are shaping up, I am afraid it is only a matter of time when Hasina will sustain a mortal grenade attack.  And when that happens, we will know who is behind all this.  I am yet to hear any kind words of wisdom from Mrs. Zia, the sitting Prime Minister.  She knows darn well, who are the grenade throwers at Awami League rally, or in Sufi Shrine in Sylhet.  But her reticence to save the Islamic extremists is very noticeable.  She should not think for a moment that the saner element of Bangladesh society is ignoring her inactivity vis-à-vis the self-proclaimed jihadists belonging to fringe Islamic parties such as Jagrata Muslim Janata, HUJI, Hijbut Tahrir, etc. 

For a long time, Bangladesh’s people thought homemade bombs were blasted at political rally or at cultural soirees.  But ever since the Scotland Yard made an investigation at Sylhet’s Sufi Shrine in the aftermath of 

May 21 blast in Shahjalal shrine in 2004 in which the newly appointed British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury was injured, the investigative teamed had opined that military grade hand grenades were lobbed at the diplomat.  The questions that naturally arise are – 1. Who knows the technique of throwing military grade grenade with precision?  2. Where are these grenades coming from? 

In early 1980s, when the Soviet army was invading Afghanistan, a deluge of Mujaheedin (jihadists) flocked to Afghanistan to fight a holy war against godless communists.  It is now widely believed that many Islamists from Bangladesh had joined the Mujaheedin brigade.  There, they learned the art of throwing grenades.  The proverbial chickens have finally come home to roost.  These Afghan War veterans have trained many jihadi madrassah students the art of grenade lobbing to maim and kill people who they deemed are theirs enemy.  That is precisely why we now hear the incidences of grenade blasts in political rally or in Sufi shrine.  One does not have to be a rocket scientists to figure out that these episodes of grenade blasts are the works of bigots whose numbers are increasing by the day in Bangladesh albeit by leaps and bounds.

Will there be any reprieve from grenade lobbing incidents?  The answer is a simple one.  No, there won’t be any break in the activity as long as any ideology that promotes hatred amongst people are on the rise.  The Wahhabi Islamists are now bent on capturing the mosque or jamaatkhana of minority sect Ahmadiyya.  That is not all.  The fundamentalists are urging the government to declare the Ahmadiyya sect members as non-Muslims.  These are telltale signs of religious sectarianism and obscurantism peaking in Bangladesh.  The nation of 140 million impoverish people is now in the slippery slope of religious extremism and there is no reprieve from it.  Where will all these end?  There is no telling.  In the meantime, the bloody episodes of grenade lobbing directed towards the main opposition party, other secularists, moviegoers, cultural soiree attendees, etc., will be on the rise.  Nothing what we say or write publicly could efface the dark side of Bangladesh’s growing fundamentalism.  The government party is aiding and abating the fundamentalist force, which eventually will come home to roost.

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A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA