Source: The Guardian
Thirty miles from the centre of Bangladesh’s chaotic capital, Dhaka, the pace of life is quieter. At the Baroipara checkpoint, near the industrial area of Ashulia, stalls offer tea and snacks to local workers and visitors to a nearby public park.
At 7.30am on 4 November, five policemen were dropped off at the checkpoint for a day-long shift and sat down for tea on benches shaded by tall, slender sal trees. The attack was so sudden they could barely react. Their assailants rode up on motorbikes, dismounted and then struck out with machetes. Two of the policemen were badly injured. One bled to death on the dusty roadside.
Tea is no longer being served at Baroipara. “We have stayed shut out of fear,” said Shamsul Alam, the owner of one stall. “I’m scared. If a cop can be killed, who knows what can happen to common people like us?”
Alam is not alone. The Baroipara killing came after the murders of two foreigners – an Italian and a Japanese national in Bangladesh – which were both claimed by Islamic State, which is suspected of bombing the Russian holiday jet in Egypt last weekend. Then there has been the series of murders of secular intellectuals, bloggers and publishers. Five have now died over the last year. These murders have been claimed by a local affiliate of al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent.
Many in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country of 160 million-plus, are now frightened. “I am working in the university and all my friends are really panicked. No one knows what could happen or when,” said Shantanu Majumder, a political scientist and activist. “Bangladesh has changed completely. This is not our usual, easy life. The [extremists] may not be strong enough to start a civil war, but they are strong enough to continue their killing mission.”
There is no doubt that such anxiety is real and justified, and al-Qaida and Isis have thus succeeded in attaining the goal of all such militant groups: to terrorise their enemies, mobilise existing supporters and polarise communities to create the conditions that favour extremism.
Categories: Bangladesh