Time to take crisis seriously

Now, after the August 17 serial bomb blasts at as many as 459 points in 63 out of 64 districts of the country in a most planned and precise manner, what has the Prime Minister to say? Would it be too unkind or harsh to say that the Prime Minister was not telling the truth? Knowingly or unknowingly she was misleading the nation. In either case, as head of the government, she has to take the full responsibility.

It is now proved beyond doubt that the reports by local as well as foreign media of possible existence of religious extremist groups and sharp rise of fundamentalism in Bangladesh were not baseless as had been continuously claimed by BNP- Jamaat coalition Govt. to suit their strategic stand in the game of power politics. According to media reports, as many as 30 religious militant organisations have set up their network across the country with the central objective of establishing an Islamic state based on sharia law. By their own claim they have some 10 lakh members all over the country, and according to intelligence reports 80,000 of them have training in arms and explosives. Jamat-ul-Mujahideen, one such group, only recently banned by the government for subversive activities using religious sentiment, has now struck.

Let there be not even the slightest doubt in anybody's mind about the fact that the country is in great danger. It is high time for all of us to wake up and resist these extremist groups who are out to drag us to the medieval age and destroy not only our already fragile economy, democracy, and social fabric, but also the image of Islam as a religion of peace, harmony, and brotherhood. Let there be no illusion in anybody's mind that BNP, having partners like Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote in their coalition government, will or can take effective measures to prevent these terrorist groups from striking again or to stem the rise of fundamentalism in the country.

Jamate Islami, the principal partner in the BNP-led coalition government, now denies having any knowledge of these extremist groups, let alone admitting to having connection with them, whereas according to the recently conducted investigation report of The Daily Star, many of the JMB and JMJB cadres were in the past members of Islamic Chatra Shibir, the student front of Jamaat-e-Islami, not to mention Maolana Farid Uddin Masud, former Islamic Foundation director, now detained for suspected involvement in the August 17 bomb blasts, pointing fingers to the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami.

The leaders of Islami Oikya Jote, another partner of the BNP in its coalition government, made no secret of their intention. They told a public meeting as early as in 1999: "We are for Osama (bin-Laden) and we are for the Taleban. Bangladesh would become Afghanistan." And on March 1 this year they declared their intention of staging Islamic revolution through the Quomi madrasas.

Mr. Abdul Hannan, former press counsellor, Bangladesh UN mission in New York, in his article titled Keep the Wolf Far Hence (Daily Star, Aug 24 ) wrote: "The nation is confronted with a challenge. It is a choice between democracy and theocracy. What is needed at this critical time is concerted and collective response by the government, the opposition, the civil society, and the public to confront and pre-empt the crisis."

No patriotic and democratic-minded sensible citizen can disagree with him. I would only like to add a few lines. Dialogue between the mainstream political parties with civil society working as a moderator would probably the best option to overcome this crisis.

The objective of such a dialogue would be to achieve a broad-based consensus on the following: (a) to apprehend and bring to justice those who have masterminded and executed this attack, (b) to legislate a ban on religion based politics, (c) to reform the entire election system including the caretaker government, and (d) stepping down of the coalition government to pave the way for an early free and fair election, if need be, under the supervision of the UN.

The author is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.