Blasts in Sylhet

However, we need to be cautious here in drawing hasty conclusions. The western press are sniffing to find connections, both real and imagined, between such acts and al-Qaeda in Bangladesh and unless our press is cautious, we could play into their hands .

Sylhet, for some odd reasons, has been the centre of such unlawful acts predating 9/11. If memory serves me right, a now forgotten Islamic group in Sylhet served the death notice on Taslima Nasreen that caused Bangladesh great damage. The group now does not even exist which proves how wrong the western press was in relating the Taslima incident to fundamentalism in Bangladesh. While Taslima got world wide publicity as Salman Rushdi, in case of the latter the fatwa was given by no one less than Ayotullah Khomeini and thus with the sanction of the government of Iran.

Reading from DS reports, I gathered that since 1997, there have been 14 blasts in Sylhet causing 24 deaths in 7 years. In one of these cases, the person accused was a former AL lawmaker and AL is considered by everybody as a secular political party. The points to note here are as follows. Unfortunate as the incidents are, these acts are perhaps not connected with international terrorism. But then the blasts are serious cases of deterioration of law and order and should be treated as such. One of the Sylhet blasts even involved an attempt upon the British High Commissioner that the Scotland Yard investigated. The investigations did not turn up any al-Qaeda or international terrorists links.

Therefore, in treating the incidents the press owes Bangladesh a responsibility. They must draw the line; dismiss these incidents as acts unconnected with al Qaeda and then put the responsibility upon this government for its failure in bringing anyone to task for 14 blasts in question. The AL here should remember that this failure is also partly theirs for some of the blasts occurred while they were in power and in their case. The reason I am asking for such caution is because I was surprised at the suggestion in the editorial calling for international assistance to resolve these acts. By doing so, we would just be allowing the international press to brand Bangladesh for what it is not. Bangladesh despite the government's utter failure in brining anyone to task for the many blasts, is not a state where terrorism of the Islamic fundamentalist type is in existence.