Since January 7 basic elections in Bangladesh, ultra-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Social gathering (BNP), which boycotted the elections started “India Out” marketing campaign with collaboration of native anti-India and jihadist teams.
The political panorama of Bangladesh has seen its justifiable share of adjustments and challenges, with the Bangladesh Nationalist Social gathering (BNP) taking part in a big position in shaping the nation’s route. Lately, there have been rising issues concerning the BNP’s alleged inclination in direction of Islamist militancy teams, which has raised questions concerning the potential penalties for the nation’s safety, stability, and world popularity.
Bangladesh has confronted its share of challenges from varied Islamist militant teams through the years. The emergence of teams like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Hizb-ut-Tahrir has raised alarm bells concerning the potential for radicalization and terrorism throughout the nation. If the BNP had been to align itself with such teams, it may result in a deterioration of the nation’s safety setting, probably permitting extremist ideologies to realize traction.
After gaining independence in 1971, Bangladesh adopted secularism as a core precept, making certain equal rights for individuals of all faiths. Nonetheless, following the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, subsequent regimes, notably that of Khondaker Mushtaq Ahmad and army dictator Basic Ziaur Rahman, started to steer the nation in direction of an Islamic republic. Basic Ziaur Rahman, skilled in Pakistan, harbored deep hostility in direction of India and based the BNP with the purpose of advancing anti-India and anti-Hindu sentiment in Bangladesh, aligning the nation with a pseudo-Pakistani id.
Basic Ziaur Rahman realigned Bangladesh’s overseas coverage away from India and the Soviet bloc, strengthening ties with the USA, Western Europe, and Islamic nations. He pursued an agenda of Islamization, amending the structure to emphasise Islamic solidarity amongst Muslim international locations and introducing Islamic spiritual schooling as a obligatory topic for Muslim schoolchildren. The ban on Islamist and anti-Bangladesh events and associations, together with Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), was lifted throughout his rule.
Basic Zia was skilled on the Pakistan Army Academy in Abbottabad. He served as a commander of the Pakistan Military within the Second Kashmir Warfare towards the Indian Military, for which he was embellished with Hilal-e-Jurat (Crescent of Braveness) award by the Pakistani authorities. Hilal-e-Jurat, the second-highest army award of Pakistan out of a complete 4 awards, was created on March 16, 1957. It’s thought of to be equal to the Conspicuous Gallantry and the Distinguished Service Cross. This award holds important advantages for the recipient together with social, political and monetary advantages. Land and pensions are awarded as recompense for serving within the Military of Pakistan on behalf of the State for acts of “valor and braveness” throughout battle “towards the enemy”.
All through his life, Basic Ziaur Rahman was a diehard opponent of India. With such infamous hatred in direction of India and in addition in direction of Hindus, Basic Zia based Bangladesh Nationalist Social gathering (BNP) with the aim of nurturing anti-India and anti-Hindu sentiment in Bangladesh and progressively advance in direction of serving as a pseudo a part of Pakistan.
Army dictator Basic Ziaur Rahman started reorienting Bangladesh’s overseas coverage, addressing the issues of the principally staunch rightists coupled with some renegade leftist who believed that Bangladesh was reliant on Indian financial and army support. He moved away from India and the Soviet bloc, growing nearer relations with the USA and Western Europe, Africa and the Center East. Basic Zia additionally moved to harmonize ties with Saudi Arabia and China, Pakistan’s ally who had opposed Bangladesh’s creation and had not acknowledged it till the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975. He moved to normalize relations with Pakistan. Whereas distancing Bangladesh from India, Basic Zia sought to enhance ties with Islamic nations, whereas he had established deeper relations with Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Group. As a consequence of Zia’s transfer in direction of Islamic state insurance policies introduced his help and patronization from the Arab and Muslim world.
Ziaur Rahman believed {that a} large part of the inhabitants was “affected by an id disaster, each spiritual and as a individuals, with a really restricted sense of sovereignty”. To “treatment this”, he started a re-Islamization of Bangladesh. He issued a proclamation order amending the structure, underneath whose foundation legal guidelines could be set in an effort to extend the self-knowledge of faith and nation. Within the preamble, he inserted the Islamic salutation “Bismillahir-Rahmaanir-Rahim” (“Within the title of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful”). In Article 8(1) and eight(1A) the assertion “absolute belief and religion in Almighty Allah” was added, changing the dedication to secularism.
In Article 25(2) of Bangladesh’s structure, army dictator Zia launched the precept that “the state shall endeavor to consolidate, protect and strengthen fraternal relations amongst Muslim international locations based mostly on Islamic solidarity”.
Later, Zia launched Islamic spiritual schooling as a obligatory topic for Muslim schoolchildren. On the beginning of Bangladesh, many Islamists had supported the Pakistani Military’s battle towards independence and been barred from politics with the Bangladesh Collaborators (Particular Tribunals) Order of 1972. Ziaur Rahman undid this in addition to the ban on Islamist and anti-Bangladesh events and associations, together with Jamaat-e-Islami.
In public speeches and insurance policies that he formulated, Basic Zia started expounding ultra-Islamist and anti-India “Bangladesh Nationalism” and emphasised the nationwide position of Islam as information to precept of life. He even amended the structure to alter the nationality of the residents from Bengali, an ethnic id, to Bangladeshi whereas Bangladeshi nationalism excluded the nation’s non-Muslim minorities, notably the Hindu group.
After the formation of Bangladesh Nationalist Social gathering in 1978, Ziaur Rahman took initiative for formation of political institutes and sponsored workshops for the youth to get lively political classes on Bangladesh nationalism by contemplating India because the “key enemy” of Bangladesh whereas he had overtly propagated stating “survival of Bangladesh will depend on steady and dedicated confrontation with India”.
BNP’s founder Basic Ziaur Rahman thought of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, believed in a mannequin of Islamic socialism, as his icon and ideological guru. Being impressed by Bhashani’s anti-India and anti-Hindu sentiment, Basic Zia based Bangladesh Nationalist Social gathering with the aim of pushing additional Bhashani’s anti-India and anti-Hindu notions. Till date, leaders and supporters of BNP uphold these infamous agendas whereas in some instances they even painting Pakistan – a rustic that has killed three million Bengalis through the 1971 battle of independence of Bangladesh, as their “brethren”.
Basic Zia’s ideological guru Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani was pro-China and persistently criticized Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for making Bangladesh a “satellite tv for pc of India” and tried to forge a coalition of the proper and left extremists towards the Awami League (AL). The BNP, which represents the right-of-center forces, has an orthodox social constituency impressed by Bhashani. The occasion is remotely managed by its performing chairperson Tarique Rahman, Khaleda Zia’s son, from London the place he’s in exile. Tarique Rahman is a convicted terrorist.
As BNP’s political affect and organizational capabilities are on quick decline with majority of the leaders secretly blaming Tarique Rahman’s “reckless tendencies and infantile selections” whereas additionally they imagine – except Tarique Rahman isn’t changed by one other chief, BNP shall finally go extinct. Sitting in London, Tarique Rahman is also conscious of such turbulence inside his occasion. To get better occasion from present sorry state, among the prime aides of Tarique have succeeded in getting him agreed in becoming a member of “India Out” motion as they imagine, this is able to assist the occasion gaining mass-support. Accordingly, among the key figures within the occasion, together with Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury have already declared solidarity with the “India Out” marketing campaign.
In the meantime, one of many key allies of BNP – jihad-mongering pro-Caliphate Hefazat-e-Islam (HeI) that denounces ladies empowerment in addition to considers India, Hindus and non-Muslims as “enemies of Islam” has additionally overtly declared solidarity with “India Out” motion.
In 2021, Mamunul Huq, a scandalous chief of Hefazat-e-Islam, informed interrogators, throughout his 15-days keep in Pakistan, he succeeded in establishing connections with Pakistani spy company ISI, which had assigned Mamunul in establishing a far-right Islamist political occasion in Bangladesh, copying ideologies of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and Muttahida Qaumi Motion (MQM).
Hefazat-e-Islam, with the funding from Pakistani ISI in addition to Qatar and sources in Dubai had been advancing with the agenda of rising as a far-right Islamist political occasion copying ideologies of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and Muttahida Qaumi Motion (MQM). Moreover, Hefazat was additionally forming a militancy group, with skilled armed members from the qawmi madrassas.
It could be talked about right here that Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) is a far-right Islamist political occasion in Pakistan. It was based by Khadim Hussain Rizvi. TLP is the organizer of 2021 Pakistani protests. The occasion additionally is thought for its countrywide road energy and big protests in opposition to any change to Pakistan’s blasphemy legislation. TLP got here into existence, and subsequently rose tos infamy, after the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, a convicted assassin, which the political occasion states was unjustifiable. It calls for that Sharia legislation be established as the elemental legislation in Pakistan, by a gradual authorized and political course of. Many of the occasion’s members belong to the Barelvi faculty of Islamic thought (madrassa).
Based on media experiences, Hefazat-e-Islam and its cohorts and funders had been secretly engaged on their blueprint of unseating the Awami League authorities in Bangladesh for months. Previous to their anti-Modi protests in 2021, there had been a sequence of conferences in a number of madrassas within the nation, the place front-ranking leaders of the pro-Caliphate group, together with Junaid Babunagari, Mamunul Haque and others had been current. These Islamist leaders gave provocation to madrassa college students to arrange for sacrificing lives of their “jihad” towards the “enemies of Islam”.
This time, in accordance with sources, leaders of Hefazat-e-Islam had been trying to implement 10-points, which might allow this infamous and ferocious group in seizing energy from the democratically elected authorities in Bangladesh. These factors are:
- Formation of an interim Islamic authorities with Junaid Babunagari as its chief. It additionally finalized a 10-members advisory council, comprising members from varied Islamist events, together with Khelafat Majlish, Khelafat Andolan etcetera.
- Suspending the structure and working the nation underneath Islamic sharia rule.
- Formation of Sharia courts all through the nation by changing the present judicial system.
- Making an attempt the members of the ruling occasion in addition to their supporters, together with editors and journalists of “secularist and atheist” media shops.
- Formation of Islamic constitutional our bodies with madrassa academics, Islamic students and leaders of the Islamist political events.
- Executing the secularists and atheists, together with civil-military officers, editors, journalists, cultural activists, social activists, ladies activists and critics of Islamic sharia rule. It additionally deliberate to execute supporters and associates of India by branding them as “enemies of Bangladesh”.
- Launch an inventory of apostates and atheists and progressively execute them by Sharia courts.
- Place college students and academics of Qawmi [Koranic] madrassa in varied key civil, army and judicial positions in Bangladesh.
- Promulgate blasphemy legislation with the supply of dying penalty.
- Ban tv channels, radio stations, cultural teams, theater teams, cinema halls etcetera.
