September 7, 2024 12:51 PM
Reports said that neither the Bangladesh Army nor Mohammed Yunus have been able to control the anti-Awami League workers and anti-Hindu violence in the country.
NEW DELHI: A month after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s caretaker government led by pro-Western Mohammed Yunus and Army Chief General Waqir Us Zaman has failed to restore law and order in the country despite the meteoric rise of Islamist organisation Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) after the death of King Hasina and the casualties of Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The rise of the JeI, which has deep ideological ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, and its strategic alignment with the militant Islamist Hefazat-e-Islam and the pro-Islamic State Ansar-ul-Bangla team, with intelligence indicating that student leaders may also be controlled or influenced by Islamists, poses a serious threat to the credibility of Bangladesh’s democracy.
According to reports, neither the Bangladesh army nor Yunus have been able to control anti-Awami League worker and anti-Hindu violence in the country, with the army unwilling to engage the perpetrators and merely remaining a bystander.
Indian national security planners have been keeping a close eye on the rise of the JeI due to Jamaat’s influence in Jammu and Kashmir and interior India, which has implications for India’s internal security. In the 1990s, Jamaat was behind the rise of SIMI across India, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and undivided Andhra Pradesh, a group that was later weaponised by Pakistan as the Indian Mujahideen. Jamaat has played a key role in orchestrating pro-Pakistan sentiment in the Valley by radicalising the youth to take up arms.
Although the Bangladesh caretaker government is in no rush to announce elections, a weak government, rising Islamic militancy and a deteriorating economy would be a disaster for Dhaka. The flip side is that the currently frightened Awami League workers may regroup and join hands in the coming months to challenge the BNP and its far more powerful affiliate, the JeI. Sources say that in fact since August 5, the JeI has been gaining power in Bangladesh at the expense of the BNP.
While interim leader Yunus has targeted Sheikh Hasina and hinted at extradition of the exiled leader from India, the main threat to Bangladesh politics actually comes from Islamists whose exiled leaders have yet to accept his sudden resignation.
India is concerned about violence and specific targeting of Hindu and Awami League workers, but is watching the situation closely, waiting for discontent to grow among the young people who ousted Sheikh Hasina from an indecisive caretaker government. This, combined with a looming economic crisis and the closure of textile and garment factories, will lead to job losses and further political turmoil. Bangladesh’s external and domestic debt is already over US$100 billion.
Bangladesh is sitting on a political powder keg that could explode again within a year.
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