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From Reasi to Dhaka: A Transnational Ideological War
Only time will tell what Bangladesh’s future holds, but one thing is clear - Western policymakers can no longer bury their heads in the sand about this existential threat.
The Hindu community of Hindu American Foundation (HAF) organised a Reasi Remembrance Rally in Fremont, California. / X.com/@HinduAmerican
Nearly two months after a gruesome terror attack in Reasi in India’s UT of Jammu and Kashmir killed nine Hindu pilgrims, Hindus once again find themselves in the cross-hairs of violent Islamist ideologues in Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh.
In the case of Reasi, it was the notorious Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)’s offshoot, The Resistance Front (TRF), which claimed responsibility for the attack. Lashkar, of course, and its new avatar, TRF, have a sordid history of targeting Hindu civilians in J&K and other parts of India.
Approximately 1600 miles away in Dhaka, those that share LeT/TRF’s ideological and religio-political vision of creating an Islamist state are similarly engaged in anti-Hindu violence.
Although the current chaos and violence in Bangladesh was ostensibly precipitated by student protests against a government quota policy, and larger issues with Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government, the role of the country’s largest and most powerful Islamist group, Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), cannot be underestimated. Scenes of large scale riots, wanton violence and looting, and targeted attacks on Hindu homes, temples, and businesses, have grabbed international attention. Despite claiming otherwise and even publicly condemning the violence, many human rights groups on the ground have confirmed that JeI, its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), and BNP activists have been primarily responsible for the anti-Hindu violence.
But Jamaat’s involvement in this latest bout of violence is not a new phenomenon and dates back to the country's founding itself, when it worked in conjunction with West Pakistan’s military to commit genocide against the country’s Hindu population during the country’s 1971 War of Independence.
Whitewashing Jamaat-e-Islami’s history of Islamist violence
Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) Bangladesh is an offshoot of the Jamaat organization that was founded in undivided India in 1941 by Maulana Abul Ala Mauddudi. Jamaat drew its inspiration from the Deobandi school of Islam, known for promoting religious extremism in several countries in the region, and modeled itself after the Muslim Brotherhood.
JeI and ICS have a long history of radicalism and violence, and both strive to create a Taliban style regime in Bangladesh. JeI has served as the ideological center and recruiting base for several terrorist groups, including Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), a State Department designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Under the guise of political grievances, they have consistently utilized violent tactics to achieve their religio-political goals, including bombings, political assassinations and targeted killings, attacks on security personnel, and mass violence against minorities and atheists.
In 2001 when they formed a coalition government with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), there was mass violence against Hindus. Subsequently, JeI-ICS activists once again escalated their attacks on minorities. For instance, according to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, 495 Hindu homes were damaged, 585 shops were attacked or looted, and 169 temples were vandalized in the months following November 2013.
Finally, in 2021 after the Hindu festival of Durga Puja, Hindu homes, temples, and businesses were once again attacked when false allegations of blasphemy spread on social media.
And just like past anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh has been minimized or explained away as part of complex political dynamics (i.e. since Hindus are supporters of the secular Awami League, they get attacked), so is the violence being justified by some commentators today.
More broadly, there has been a sense of jubilation, celebrating the supposed victory of a democratic uprising against an autocratic Hasina government and downplaying the explicitly anti-Hindu violence, with some American government officials and high level committees chiming in to celebrate as well. This should come as no surprise, however, as the American political establishment has always been hyper focused on Hasina’s transgressions while whitewashing the sins of Jamaat and the BNP, something I observed first-hand during years of advocacy on Capitol Hill.
That view is shortsighted though, and completely glosses over the pivotal role of Islamists in both the coup to remove Hasina as well as the riots that have ensued. And more importantly, it turns a blind eye to the threat they pose to any secular democratic future for the country.
Jamaat-e-Islami and the bridge between Dhaka and Reasi
Not coincidentally, Jamaat-e-Islami also has a very active chapter in Jammu and Kashmir and provides logistical and ideological support to terror groups active there. And LeT has extensive networks with other radical groups in Bangladesh.
While there is no overt connection between the Reasi terror attack and the targeted anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh per se, what binds them together is the shared ideological roots of the non-state actors involved and their common religio-political goals.
If Western analysts and policymakers solely focus on the political aspects of these events without addressing the underlying ideological motivations, chaos, violence, and terror in the subcontinent will not only continue but rapidly escalate.
This is particularly concerning given the uncertain trajectory of Bangladesh and whether Islamists will attempt to seize power and/or if Bangladesh once again will become a haven for transnational Islamist terror groups, as Indian security analyst Sushan Sareen notes.
Only time will tell what Bangladesh’s future holds, but one thing is clear - Western policymakers can no longer bury their heads in the sand about this existential threat.
The author is the managing director of Policy & Programs, and Co-Legal Counsel at the Hindu American Foundation.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad.
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