Unheard Voices

The Usual Suspects
by Naeem Mohaiemen
Published in The Daily Star, May 19, 2008

“They let us cook rice-daal for them, let us raise their children, trust us with the keys to house-home-jewelry. And then they turn around and vote for people who call us terrorists and want to cut us into pieces and bury us inside the ground.”
– Bangladeshi taxi driver in Delhi (author interview, 2005)

BOMB blast in Jaipur. Round up the usual suspects. Calling Abdul, Rahman, Rahim, Karim, Salim. All you “illegal” Bangladeshi immigrants within our borders. Report to the newest detention centers. It’s not who you say you are, it’s what we say you are.

Bangladesh has emerged as the all-purpose “Nondo Ghosh” (joto dosh) for Indian intelligence agencies. Attack on train station? Defused bombs? Bicycle bombs? Bag bombs? It must be the ultra-efficient, tentacle-spreading spectre of “terrorist organisations based in Bangladesh.”

Within days, we are told that the “modus operandi” of the Jaipur blasts is similar to the Uttar Pradesh court blasts (November 2007), Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blasts (May 2007) and Malegaon blast (2006). Every bomb blast is similar to the one before. They are all connected, except when they aren’t. Working on these leads, police are raiding Bangladeshi localities at Galta Gate, Baghrana, Ramganj, Subhash Chowk, and Bhatta Basti in Jaipur. Very convenient.

I remember the old days of Indian media hysteria about “Pakistani” militants. Bullet riddled bodies (the dead don’t talk) and Pakistani passports (always in their pockets!). But Pakistan has become more complex, with its role in the US axis of the willing. Plus, the public wants new, fresh faces.

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Money Shot Quotes from Condi Rice:
1. “Bangladesh a strong partner of the United States in fighting terrorism”
2. “We…are committed to further strengthening this partnership”

Translation for those who don’t speak war-on-terrorese:
1. US money pouring into RAB, Army, Joint Forces, Biometric Databases (where do you think voter ID card data going)
2. Even more high jinks as we become another “coalition of willing” (remember what happened to last one)
3. National Security Council now a slam dunk– “desh ke bachate”, etc

Prediction
1. HuJi bomb blasts on cue, conveniently timed for right before NSC legislation about to pass

The $ Million Question
Any link to Patricia Butenis private visit to Dhaka this week from Iraq? Nahh, don’t be so cynical. I am sure she really came back to pick up her “pet dogs” as she claimed. Ooer, that don’t sound right… (more…)

Everything the US has touched (to “fix”), they have made worse….now it’s our turn…US security delegation comprising a congressman and military veterans has asked President Bush to give Bangladesh “high priority” as a strategic partner in US foreign and national security policies against the backdrop of its exposure to Islamist extremism. (more…)

Egyptian Islamist zealot turned Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri is apparently the poster boy of violent terrorism and his face in the media evokes a violent image of Islam. During the early school days of Zawahiri, the then Egyptian government decided to exterminate Islamic militancy by hanging every possible person with the slightest connection with Islamic militancy. The bloody and heavy handed violent methods of Egyptian government in controlling the influence of some relative less violent groups like Muslim brotherhood evoked sympathy and ideological allegiance to these groups among many young people. At that time Zawahiri was recruited to Muslim Brotherhood and later he assumed a leadership role in Egyptian Islamic Jihad. If we take lesson from history we would see that violently exterminating the leadership of Egyptian Islamic groups did no have any long term effect in curbing Islamic terrorism. Rather we now have this Ayman al-Zawahiri threatening the world with new fear every now and then.

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May Day holiday. Dhaka streets empty, peaceful (like post-Eid). Went to work in relaxed mode, no traffic. An SMS from Mishu Rahman of Channel I burst my bubble….The “bombers” are “back”.

A series of bombs went off at Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong railway stations today between 6:45am and 9:30am. Aluminium plate found near scene with inscribed message: All must quit NGO jobs by May 10, all ‘Kadianis’ must recognise Prophet Muhammad (sm) or face death after May 10. Below the message on the plate was inscribed: Zadith (Al Qaeda, Bangladesh).

Questions:
*What kind of terrorist inscribes message on aluminium plate? Seems odd and kitschy..
*How exactly does one become the “Al Qaeda” branch in Bangladesh? Was there an initiation ceremony? Little wallet size cards? Laden dropped by?
*How do you manage to explode 3 bombs in a country of 140 million, where you can’t move w/o bumping into people, and not kill anyone? Very odd terrorists to go by the AQ tag.
*Of all targets, why again Ahmadiyas (Kadianis)? Population of 200,000? Why not the expected targets of “AQ”– US, ES Embassy, “The West”, bla bla?
*Finally, not very media savvy actually to do it on this holiday. Many people didn’t know about it until few hours later. And today all newspapers are closed, so saturation coverage only on TV and blogs.

Once again, Bangladesh as a chess board for puppetmasters. The question always is, who benefits from a security panic?
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