The Bangladesh government has finally started to crack down in militants and those who have been targeting minorities and secular writers in the country. For a few years now, the regularity at which bloggers and other writers who were exposing militant groups and flawed policies through their work, as well as minorities such as Hindus and Catholics were being killed was alarming. People were getting hacked to death every week across the country, especially in Dhaka.
Now the Shaikh Hasina led government has arrested over 3000 people, with around 37 of them militants belonging to an outlawed group called the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The JMB have been believed to attack minorities, resenting their presence in a country that is predominately Muslim. There have even been rumours that Al Qaeda and the Islamic State have made their presence felt in the country, claiming to have orchestrated some attacks. The government however was quick to dismiss such rumours.
With a large amount of militant Islamic groups, the country needed the government to step up and take control of the situation. Prime Minister Hasina put together the paramilitary border guards and an elite anti-crime force. She has promised to bring more people to book. This was needed, not just to bring order in the country and assure the minorities and writers that they were safe, but also from an international perspective. With many other countries self-imploding due to unrest, particularly of the communal kind, the crackdown was a great show of strength. Of course, political rivals claim that this was a move to suppress political dissent. How far that is true is anyone’s guess.
