Right-wing militants have regrouped across the country over the past year, putting together their networks and strengthening training and indoctrination operations despite a lull in terrorist attacks in the same period, according to a study released yesterday.
The “2007-2008 Trends in Militancy in Bangladesh” report by the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) said while there had been five to six bomb attacks a year between 1999 and 2006, the execution of JMB kingpins last year partly resulted in the total fall of terrorist attacks.
It, however, said reports of bomb explosions and bomb-making cells indicate that militant groups are once again organising themselves for terrorist attacks, only waiting for the opportune moment.
The report said the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants who managed to remain at large after the August 17 synchronised bomb explosions across the country in 2005 have regrouped and launched recruitment drives.
They are reportedly holding public meetings, raising funds and running recruitment drives in Gaibandha while the Allah'r Dal, a JMB offshoot, is active in the south-west, especially in Kushtia, Meherpur and Chuadanga.
The report said the outlawed outfits are handing out propaganda leaflets, CDs, books and handbills in their drive for new cadres, occasionally using coercion to that end.
"They are inviting people to join JMB and trying to motivate innocent villagers in the name of Jihad to establish Islamic rule in the country. Villagers are called kafirs (non-believers) when/if they refuse to listen to the militants," the report said.
It feared that militants could attempt to destabilise the elections, adding that recent Maoist victory in Nepal may embolden both leftist and rightist militancy here.
In recent months, militants have attempted to spark revolts in jails or made numerous breakout attempts.
In the last ten months, 245 militants have been arrested: 145 of them were 'Islamist militants' -- 45 were members of the Hizbut Towhid, 35 belonged to the JMB, 25 were from the Harkatul Jihad (HuJi) and 23 from the Allah'r Dal.
Seventeen militants were sentenced to death in the same period, seven of them belonging to the JMB. Eighty-six others were sentenced to varying prison terms by speedy trial tribunals.
Before the report was released, Health Adviser Shawkat Ali launched a BEI-published book titled Countering Terrorism in Bangladesh at the BEI auditorium in the capital.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said the next government must not tolerate terrorism or terrorist groups, adding that the rise of militancy in the country over the last decade was due to political shelter provided by the then ruling parties.
"Political parties must include in their election manifestoes that they would not patronise any terrorist activities," he said.