Al Qaeda-Famine grabbing Bangladesh

By: Sunita Paul

Latest news in Dhaka's press mostly is filled with sufferings of people due to recent famine, which broke silently in the country of 150 million people. A vernacular daily named *Naya Diganta *(New Horizon), published a photograph of a dead body of an unknown man in Dhaka. Seeing this photograph, someone may assume, it was taken from Somalia. But, no, it is from Dhaka. It is quite understandable that, when people in the capital are dying due to lack of food, there should be numerous deaths in the rural parts of the country. But, despite such serious situation, authorities in Dhaka are yet to accept the fact that the country is experiencing silent famine. They are still continuing to argue that the situation may be called 'hidden hunger' but not famine.

Whatever be it called, 'silent famine', as some politicians and economists put it, or 'hidden hunger', as the food adviser termed it on April 3, the food situation has assumed, beyond an iota of doubt, crisis proportions. Of late, the military-backed government has admitted as such, with its chief adviser saying as recently as on March 31 that the price situation has become 'unbearable' for most people. That the prices, especially of rice, have become unbearable even for the middle-income group becomes evident if one looks at the ever-growing queues at the economy shops run by the border guards Bangladesh Rifles. According to a reports a growing number of children are forgoing their classes and women keeping their households work aside to stand in queue at the economy store for hours on end to save TK 35 (US$ 0.50) on five kilograms of rice allocated per head'. Photographs on newspaper pages show women in veils standing in long queues in front of a BDR-run in Dhaka.

When the desperation of the people over the apparently endless spiral of food prices has reached such a level, certain suggestions made by the key figures of the incumbent administration appear to be no less than a cruel joke. For instance, the food adviser said a few days back that the people should eat less until the *Boro* harvest when they can make up for the nutrition losses by eating more. The army chief said on April 2 that people should develop a habit of eating potato, which will not only reduce demand for rice but also fulfill nutrition requirements. These suggestions could only be construed as lack of urgency on the part of the incumbents to mitigate the ever-growing misery of the people, which, by the way, befell them in the first place because of certain actions and inactions of the interim government.

In the wake of the back-to-back floods and then cyclone Sidr in 2007, which caused extensive damage to standing crops, the government was inordinately slow to assess the food situation and plan exigencies despite repeated warnings by the economists, the politicians and even the Asian Development Bank. Meanwhile, it has virtually destroyed the food distribution network through its overzealous, and often arbitrary, 'drive against crime and corruption'. Now, it seems, the government is trying to pass the blame on the business community. The finance adviser is quoted in the media as saying on April 2 that the business community 'should be socially responsible' for the price manipulation by some traders.

Despite the fact of severe food crisis and growing famine in Bangladesh, the military backed interim government fails to take any steps in either resolving or even easing the situation. Business community, especially the importers of edible products are still under continued harassment by the law enforcing agencies, which began right from January 12, 2007. "Business community is in a state of great panic", said a leading importer of rice.

Meanwhile, with the worsening situation of famine, some militant political parties and groups like Hizb Ut Tahrir, Khelafat Majlish, and Islamic Constitution Movement etc. It is already reported in international press that, Hizb Ut Tahrir is an associate body of Al Qaeda. These parties demonstrated on the roads of Dhaka denouncing government's decision in refreshing the existing inheritance law in Bangladesh. Members of the law enforcing agencies were seen sitting reluctantly, although these groups clearly violated State of Emergency and gathered a few thousand people on the roads of Dhaka. There are even reports that Al Qaeda has started fresh recruitment of people in Bangladesh taking the advantage of severe financial sufferings of the under privileged people in the country. Strategists of the notorious Islamist militancy group, opted for extending all out cooperation to *Hizb Ut Tahrir* as leaders of anti-Soviet Harkatul Jihad (HUJI) led by Moulana Abdus Salam has already abandoned that organization and now are on the process of entering mainstream politics in Bangladesh by forming a new political party named Islami Gono Andolan (IGA). While talking to this correspondent, Moulana Salam said, "We fought against the Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan. Afterwards, our people, who joined that war came back to Bangladesh and had never been involved in any of terrorist activities. But, some vested quarters, including Mufti Abdul Hannan continued numerous criminal activities using the name of HUJI. That is why; we had to abandon this organization few years back."

On the ideology of *Islami Gono Andolan*, Moulana Salam said, their prime objective will be to participate in establishing rule of law as well strengthening democratic institutions in the country. They will also combat militancy in the name of religion as well as Islamists, leftists and atheists, which IGA considers to be prime factors behind all types of miseries of Bangladesh.

Moulana Salam denounced any relations between IGA and Al Qaeda. He said, "We are a poor political party, and we do not have the fund even to hire an office in the Capital. But, there are some questioned political parties in the country, which are able to spend millions of Taka in any of their programs. Naturally someone may raise questions about their source of fund."

Hizb Ut Tahrir has started flexing muscle in Bangladesh for past few months. It is violating the State of Emergency on a regular basis and even getting into confrontation with the law enforcing agencies in the country. It is further learnt that, Al Qaeda-Hizb Ut Tahrir alliance is getting exposed gradually in those countries, which are yet to ban this militancy group. In Bangladesh, Hizb Ut Tahrir echoed the recent statement of Ayman Jawahiri of Al Qaeda in eliminating Israel from the global map and attacking Jews everywhere in the world. Hizb Ut Tahrir initially began its campaign in Bangladesh to boycott products from Denmark with the excuse of publication of cartoon in a Danish newspaper. Now, it is also campaigning boycotting of products from United States and some of the European countries. This organization never says anything against Great Britain, as Hizb Ut Tahrir gets a kind of silent support from UK for reason unknown. Analysts feel that United Kingdom wishes to implement its anti-Semitic emotions through this notorious partner of Al Qaeda.

Bangladesh is certainly in the worst ever situation since its independence in 1971. One the one hand, it is gradually becoming a failed state due to non governance as well as increase in activities of various militancy groups, food crisis is also becoming another unbearable catastrophe for the entire nation. Taking such 'unique' situation, Al Qaeda is gradually extending its grips over the home of 120 million Moslems.

Global leaders, which are taking active part in War on Terror, need to take up this issue into their immediate consideration before it is too late.