Mr. Matiur Rahman Nizami on Friday 'revealed' over the ATN Bangla TV news channel to the nation that the media, especially The Daily Star (he singled us out), are principally responsible for -- no, not for damaging the country's image, which we have been doing forever -- but for a far more heinous crime -- helping the Islamic militants rise. What needs to be done now, he implied, is to close down these newspapers and, like magic, all militancy will disappear. Like the proverbial ostrich, all we need to do is bury our heads in the sand and all our ills will vanish. (Just a reminder for our readers. A few weeks back, our venerable foreign minister suggested that the media were responsible for our image as the 'most corrupt country', because we report on corruption. If there were no reports, there would have been no image of corruption, and we would have lived happily ever after).

The Jamaat Ameer's argument is that by giving prominent news coverage we encourage more people to join the ranks of militants. According to him, if the militancy stories were ignored or given only scant coverage then the religious extremism would not have risen.

Let us examine the insidious and totally false nature of this argument. By every intelligence agency account and on the basis of confessional statements of those arrested after the recent bomb blasts, the terrorists have been preparing over the last several years for the recent bombings. The role of Afghan Mujahideen returnees, the extremism funding from the Middle East and the secret training at numerous madrasas in several districts have been going on over the past several years, during which the media coverage was abysmally low, almost non-existent. In fact, so clever were the militants in hiding their terrorist activities and so deep they penetrated the high and the mighty that the government and the ruling alliance went on a vigorous denial when the media first started revealing the militants' activities. It was only after the recent countrywide bombings that the government has taken our recent vigorous reportage somewhat seriously.

Mr. Nizami has very good reasons to castigate the media for doing their job well. How else would it have been revealed that many of the arrested extremists have either confessed to being Jamaat members in the past or being guided by those who hold leadership positions in that party or its front organisations, especially Shibir, its student wing. The so-called Bangla Bhai himself, in an interview published in this paper in May 2004, claimed, "I was a Shibir member until 1995." Another wanted militant, Montezar, was the Jamaat chief of Bariatala union of Joypurhat district when the police raided his house following a serious armed encounter. Jamaat denied any link with him, but the police found out from his diary that he had applied to be made a Rokon, a coveted post in Jamaat. Sohel of Sunamgang Govt College, arrested in August 2003, was a member of Shibir. His brother Selim told the press, "Shibir turned my brother into an ultra-religious man and forced him to work for the JMB." In November 2004 three militants were arrested with 124 electronic bomb detonators from a Shantahar-bound train. All the three confessed to being Shibir workers. In February 2004 militant Azizul was arrested in Devigang upazila of Panchagarh district, who told the police that he had formerly belonged to Shibir and was now working for the JMB. In February 2005 two JMB members, Samiul Al Siju and Fazlul Huq, arrested in Gangachara upazilla of Rangpur district were listed as 'Jamaat activists' in the police probe report. In July 2005, 11 people were arrested at Puthiapara of Paba upazilla in Rajshahi district. Their team leader, Enamul, confessed to having been a Shibir member only a year ago. Two of them, Ibrahim Hossain and Golam Mustafa, students of the Rajshahi University, told the police they belonged to Shibir. These are just a few of a large number of similar cases.

It may be noted here that whenever any militant linked with Jamaat has been arrested, the party either denied any relation with the arrestee or said he was a former member. Many political analysts believe such statements are but a part of Jamaat's tactics.

Nizami's own response, in the aforementioned ATN interview, to the question whether he acknowledged the existence of Bangla Bhai or not is quite revealing. He said, "I don't have any comments on whether he exists or not. If a man really exists he won't disappear by my saying he doesn't exist." Why such an evasive answer to a very simple question? Can this be the answer of a cabinet minister of a government in genuine search of Bangla Bhai? He seemed almost in pain to acknowledge that such a man exists. He would have preferred the media to have ignored him and allowed him to carry out his mission.

That is where we have fallen foul of the Jamaat's Ameer. His party's desire to keep its militant connections under wrap has been put to naught by the brave members of the media. The bogey of media coverage contributing to the rise of the militants is nothing but a devious attempt to stop the media from uncovering the dangerous activities the militants have now embarked on.

In fact, the true fault of the media is that we have not done enough to expose the leaders, the groups and the parties who have taken advantage of our democracy, our tolerance and our forgiving attitude towards the war criminals of 1971 to destroy the Bangladesh created through a hard-fought Liberation War. As Jamaat professed to join our democratic polity, we gave them a chance and literally forgot how they had butchered our valiant freedom fighters, how they helped the Pakistan army to destroy our people, our land and our future by conducting genocide. Nothing revealed their viciousness more than the cold-blooded and merciless killing of our intellectuals just three days before their defeat.

The media will continue to do everything to defend democracy, freedom, rule of law and our Constitution. We will fight extremism and terrorism, notwithstanding Mr. Nizami's umbrage.