Bangladesh: Vital US partner against terrorism

When Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy was butchered on a Dhaka street in February, investigators’ findings pointed to extremist elements of the religious-based political party Jamaat-e-Islami as the perpetrators. These extremists are connected to the Indian branch of Al-Qaeda. The link was confirmed in early May when the head of Al Qaeda posted a video claiming responsibility for the killing of Roy and several other “blasphemers.”

Bangladesh constantly battles domestic terrorism by Jamaat-e-Islami and its ilk. Jamaat and its backers in the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) do not want a tolerant, democratic Bangladesh where women’s rights are upheld and all religions are respected. Instead, they want a primitive, extremist state that would eradicate the progress and modernity that Bangladesh has fought hard to achieve in its brief, 44-year history.

{mosads}The BNP has organized national strikes and blockades designed to replace democracy with rule by terror. Jamaat thugs wielding gasoline bombs and other weapons are responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people since the beginning of the year.

These attacks drew the ire of Secretary of State John Kerry during a White House conference about violent extremism in February. He said there could be “no tolerance” for tactics that “inhibit political expression” or harm citizens.

Bangladesh proudly joined leaders from 60 nations at the White House conference. To support President Obama’s efforts, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told fellow attendees, “Terrorists are terrorists irrespective of beliefs, creeds or castes. There must be a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of terrorism and violent extremism.”

These are more than mere words. In April of last year, Bangladesh received excellent marks for its anti-terrorism measures in the State Department’s Country Report on Terrorism. The report cited the “remarkable successes” that Bangladesh has achieved fighting global terrorism and terrorism inside its borders.

Bangladesh’s domestic terrorists threaten to make the country a breeding ground for international terrorists. The U.S. sent an FBI team to Bangladesh to assist police in the investigation of Roy’s slaying, only the latest example of cooperation against terrorists by the two allies. The U.S. State Department rightly reports that Bangladesh’s government is working hard to prevent terrorism from spreading.

“The Government of Bangladesh has demonstrated political will and firm commitment to combat domestic and transnational terrorist groups, and its counter terrorism efforts made it harder for…terrorists to operate or establish safe havens in Bangladesh,” the State Department’s report states.

In a 2013 report, Washington’s Heritage Foundation observed that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government made substantial progress in rooting out violent extremists in the country and dismantled one of the deadliest groups, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which carried out a series of attacks in 2005 and 2006.

Bangladesh has also made great strides in legislation, law enforcement, border security, terror financing, regional and international cooperation for combating terrorism, and social measures to address and disrupt the root causes of terrorism.

In 2010, the government created a strong anti-militancy National Education Policy, which reformed the curriculums in Islamic religious schools where seeds of extremism and intolerance are often planted. As an extension of this, the government has begun including chapters on the virtues of anti-extremism in school textbooks.

Bangladesh and the U.S. cemented their unity in the fight against terrorism with a 2013 agreement that improves counterterrorism ties between the two, including information sharing and cooperation among law enforcement agencies.

Fighting terrorism means stopping the cash that funds it and Bangladesh has waged war on that front as well. Last year, the Financial Action Task Force – an intergovernmental body of several nations – recognized Bangladesh’s successful efforts to stop money-laundering and terrorist financing measures. The recognition was enough to remove Bangladesh from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s “grey list” of non-compliant countries.

Repeated raids by Bangladeshi tactical teams have recovered anti-tank weapons, rocket launchers, mortar shells, machine guns and cases of ammunition –the kinds of lethal, easily transported weapons favored by militant extremists.

Bangladesh has a long history of battling extremism and supporting social tolerance, peace and religious freedom. Those are the same values espoused in the U.S. Constitution, making Bangladesh not only a strong but a natural ally of the U.S. in the global fight against terrorism.

Ziauddin is Bangladesh’s ambassador to the U.S.