Attack on Shia mosque: The looming threat
The immediate
course of action for the authorities is clear: the underground networks
have to be brought to the light, nipping in the bud
their vicious plan
A very worrying underground plan is being implemented to unsettle Bangladesh for quite some time now and this transpires especially from the events that have unfolded in recent months. The trend of the targets of killing by extremists should leave no doubt that an underground group is advancing in a planned and organised way to materialise their dream. After the serial killing of bloggers, it was first the grenade attack on Tazia procession at Hussaeni Dalan in the capital that killed one person and injured many.
Only recently unidentified gunmen storming into a Shia mosque in Bogra killed the muezzin of the mosque and three others when they were offering the Maghrib prayer. Also the simultaneous issuing of death threats to 10 Christian priests in Rangpur reinforces the doubt that the planned attempt might be more sinister in its design than the authorities up until now have taken it to be. Earlier a churchman in Dinajpur was also given similar threat.
The publication of an article in Islamic States propaganda magazine, Dabiq, about the groups future objectives in Bangladesh might not be mere words, and authorities in Bangladesh will have to regret if the countrys peaceful fabric is seriously torn apart by a full-blown network of the group.
It would be a gross mistake to think that the extremist outfits so far banned in the country are sitting idle and they have no connection with the IS. These groups already might have merged with IS and are operating from their underground locations with new identities.
Therefore, the immediate course of action for the authorities is clear: the underground networks have to be brought to the light, nipping in the bud their vicious plan. The government has to accept that there is a potentially very serious security threat to the country brewing up and it has to rise up to the occasion.
To stop them in their tracks, an anti-terrorism unit must be set up at the fastest to effectively deal with this rising problem. Its members may be drawn from our conventional law enforcing agencies as well as from different professional fields. In this regard, the government can also seek assistance from other countries that have similar entities to battle terrorism.
Bangladesh as a country is sharply divided politically. This makes the country more vulnerable to acts of terrorism. This weakness in our politics without any unity of purpose may just encourage the terrorists. Time is high to wake up and devise ways and means to handle the situation with the highest seriousness it deserves.
