A Rude Awakening

On the night of July 1st, seven gunmen entered famous Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka  and carried out one of the deadliest carnages that  Bangladesh has seen in recent years. 

20 people, mostly foreigners  were mercilessly killed in the 13-hour siege that ended when over 100 Commandos killed six of the terrorists and captured one alive.

Two days after the attack as the world mourns the victims and horrific details of the attack are out, the question that arises is whether the attack was inevitable? 

The Friday attack, which the Islamic State has taken responsibility of,  cannot be seen in an isolation. Since late 2014 to early 2015, Bangladesh has been witnessing various incidents of intolerance. Secular bloggers, writers and even their publishers have been brutally hacked to death. Even the minority communities and foreigners have been the victims of this growing intolerance. Many of these attacks have been claimed by the Islamic state. 

But despite the claims, the government had time and again ignored and denied its presence in the nation. And have blamed the homegrown militant organisations like Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh or the JMB for these attacks.

The Sheikh Hasina government has played politics over these individuals’ deaths. Her government has blamed the opposition Bangladesh National Party and the Jamaat –e-Islami for conspiring against the secularism of the Muslim majority nation. And even if the government is to be believed steps which the government took didn't help to prevent such attacks on free thinkers and minorities

The government have again blamed homegrown militants for the Dhaka attack  despite IS releasing photographs of five of them. The preliminary investigation states that three of the gunmen belonged to affluent families and were well educated. 

The Sheikh Hasina government has to understand that the nationality of these gunmen doesn't matter  but the ideology they subscribed to, that's what important. 

The extremist ideology of IS is a major concern across the globe. Many well-educated individuals from Europe, United State and south Asian nations have been brainwashed by online IS handlers or local recruiters of the World terror group. And the possibility of this cannot be denied in this case too.

Bangladesh is geographically and strategically an important nation. With it being a link to both South Asia and south-east Asia, if Islamic extremism constantly grows here then it can be a major concern for its neighbours especially India, with which it shares a boundary of over 4000 Km, mostly porous.

Bangladesh since its liberation from Pakistan in 1971 has been proudly a secular state which may have experienced its share of extremism in past but not in this manner.

The situation is quite grave now in the South Asian country. It's not just a terrorist attack but an attack on its liberal and secular ideology. The sheikh Hasina government has to take stringent steps to curb the extremism, whatever name it presents itself in.