Islamist Militancy in Bangladesh

On 17 August 2005 the apparatus of the state of Bangladesh was attacked in a peculiarly violent and organised fashion: within an hour over 450 small bombs exploded in multiple locations all across the country. Following this, Bangladesh spiked on the ‘war on terror’ radar for some months and analyses of the Islamist menace proliferated amongst interested parties, locally, regionally and internationally. Action was swift. By the following spring, the government, which had until then viewed local press portrayals of religious vigilantism and violence with suspicion and denial, had all seven members of the organisation which was behind the bombings, Shura, in custody. By the end of May 2006, they were sentenced to death.

Unpacking how such events could occur in Bangladesh, Ali Riaz’s Islamist Violence in Bangladesh: A complex web provides a detailed and very descriptive narrative for the interested West. The author’s vision for solution includes a greater, secular democratisation of polity, law and order and stronger internal criminal investigation. His recommendations for the international community to act are also telling. He wants India and Pakistan to stop using Bangladesh as a proxy battleground, open its economic markets to Bangladesh goods, and not ‘undermine the secularist forces representing the majority of the population’. (p.108)