Until 2015, Bangladesh witnessed militant attacks using improvised devices, grenades, and machetes on secularists, Awami League members, and the police since 2000. The Middle East-based Islamic State (ISIS), which began operations in 2015, had similar targets.
The Bangladesh offshoot of ISIS was formed by former members of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI-B), Hizb ut-Tahrir, Ahle Hadith, and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
Many of the trained members of ISIS went to fight in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq after receiving jihadi training.
The followers of ISIS claimed responsibility for 29 attacks, including the Holey Artisan Bakery massacre, in two years. At least 55 people, including foreigners and Hindu priests, were killed in these attacks.
In addition, at least 15 other similar murders and attacks with bombs and sharp weapons were carried out during that time, including the Sholakia Eidgah ground, shrines, and several ISKCON temples and followers.
After the August 5 changeover, the radical Islamists, as well as the banned militant groups, are operating freely. Many of them fled the prisons; many are coming out of jail on bail and provoking more violence at Islamic conferences and demonstrations.
The Jamaat-controlled interim government of Pakistan-lover Muhammad Yunus and his advisory council are patronizing the jihadists to maintain pressure on India and the Awami League. But their audacity, provocation and violence have crossed all limits of human rights.
Using the court, a section of the government is labeling the militants and their families as persecuted Islamic people and the Awami League government as anti-Islam.
Now that the government is patronizing jihadist clerics like Jasimuddin Rahmani, Harun Izhar and Asif Adnan, it is feared that the ISIS and al-Qaeda fighters who travelled to Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have started returning to Bangladesh, and are likely to join the jihadist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, JMB, Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya or Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
A top militant leader and dismissed army officer, major Syed Ziaul Haque Zia, reportedly entered Bangladesh with a Pakistani passport in late December and is seeking to have his cases and convictions withdrawn.
Most recently, a Bogra court acquitted all nine accused in a case filed for the gun attack on a Shia mosque in 2015 that killed a muezzin and injured three others. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. Police said 13 members of the JMB and Islami Chhatra Shibir participated in the attack.
How it began
The law enforcers first spoke about ISIS activities in 2015 after the arrest of Abdullah Al Ghalib, son of former army major Mohammad Abdullah, who founded Junud At-Tawheed Wal Khilafah in 2014. Members of the Detective Branch (DB) of police picked him up from his house at the capital’s Baridhara DOHS, where he was meeting with 10 to 12 members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team.
Before forming the ISIS offshoot, Ghalib was associated with Hizb ut-Tahrir, JMB and al-Qaeda affiliate Ansarullah Bangla Team. Ghalib hails from Lebupara area of Jessore. He passed “O” and “A” levels from the capital’s Penspan International School and College and the GED in 2013 and was involved in selling fragrance and garment accessories, the police said.
He collected members from different parts of the country through social media. An expert in Arabic, Ghalib showed video footage of jihadi activities while training recruits in remote areas of the country.
In October 2014, Ghalib expressed his allegiance to ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and praised al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri in a Bangla-dubbed video with English subtitles, where he said, “Our mujahideen brothers are prepared to launch attacks at various parts of Bangladesh.”
Before his arrest, dozens of people left Bangladesh for Syria and Iraq via Turkey to join ISIS, and some recruiters and trainers visited Bangladesh, including Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, the Canadian-Bangladeshi leader of ISIS-Bangladesh and the mastermind behind the Dhaka café attack on July 1, 2016.
A Facebook group named “Ex-cadet Islamic Learning Forum” played a major role in recruiting these young men. The head admin of this group was Sujit Debnath, who was studying in Japan and took the name Saifullah Ozaki after converting to Islam. He was assisted by around 20-25 others, including Aminul Islam Baig, sacked army major Syed Ziaul Haque, Sakib Bin Kamal, Junnun Sikder, Nazibullah Ansari and Asadullah Galib from Bangladesh, and ATM Tajuddin who lived in Australia.
According to one intelligence report, at least 38 Bangladeshis travelled through various countries to reach Syria and join ISIS by 2015. Of them, 13 went through Singapore, nine through Turkey, seven through Malaysia, four through UAE, two through Japan and one each through Qatar, Iran and Saudia Arabia.
Amid a spree of arrests and so-called crossfires of ISIS recruits since 2015, the militant group launched dozens of attacks across the country. The ISIS media wing claimed responsibility for 29 attacks till 2017. Due to tough actions by law enforcers, the number of attacks went down in the following years.
It couldn’t be ascertained who the first Bangladeshi was to go to Syria or Iraq as an ISIS fighter. The first name that emerged in various reports was Saiful Haque Sujan, a resident of Cardiff, UK who left for Syria with his pregnant wife and three children, in 2014. On December 29, 2015, the US government announced that Sujan was killed in an air strike earlier that month near the Raqqa city in Syria, the base of IS operations. The US Army identified him as a computer hacker and a key link for ISIS. The Bangladesh authorities said Sujan had recruited many fighters through social media.
Attacks claimed by ISIS
#1: September 28, 2015:Italian citizen Cesare Tavella is killed by silenced weapon in Dhaka’s Gulshan area.
#2: October 3, 2015: Japanese citizen Hoshi Kunio is shot dead by masked men when he was going by a rickshaw to his grass farm at Alutari in Kaunia Upazila of Rangpur.
#3: October 24, 2015: Two people, including a teenager, are killed and over 100 are injured in a grenade attack during preparations for the Tazia procession in Dhaka’s Hussaini Dalan, a day before the Holy Ashura.
#4: November 4, 2015: Police constable Mukul Hossain is stabbed dead and another is injured at a police check post in Ashulia, Dhaka.
#5: November 8, 2015: Ruhul Amin, director of the Bahai Centre in Rangpur and PS of the director of Rangpur Medical College Hospital, is injured in a silenced gun attack by three people on a bike.
#6: November 10, 2015: ISIS kills shrine caretaker and local Awami League leader Rahmat Ali at Kaunia of Rangpur.
#7: November 18, 2015: Italian doctor-priest Piero Parolari survives a silenced gun attack in Dinajpur.
#8: November 26, 2015: One is killed and three others are injured in a machine gun attack on a Shia mosque in Bogra.
#9: December 25, 2015: A suicide bomber is killed and 10 are injured at an Ahmadiyya mosque in Baghmara, Rajshahi.
#10: January 7, 2016: Homoeopathy doctor Chhamir Uddin Mandal (Samir al-Din) is stabbed dead at Belekhal Bazar of Jhenaidah.
#11: February 8, 2016: Hindu hardware businessman Tarun Datta, 45, is found beheaded in the Bardhankuthi area of Gobindaganj in Gaibandha.
#12: February 21, 2016: Hindu Panchagarh temple priest Joggeshwar Roy is slaughtered by ISIS members.
#13: March 14, 2016: Shia preacher Abdur Razzaq of Kaliganj in Jhenaidah is stabbed dead.
#14: March 22, 2016: Christian convert freedom fighter and government employee Hossain Ali Sarker is slaughtered at Krishnapur of Kurigram town during a morning walk.
#15: April 23, 2016: Rajshahi University’s English teacher and cultural activist Prof Dr AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique is hacked to death in the Shalbagan area of the city.
#16: April 30, 2016: Hindu tailor from Tangail Nikhil Chandra Joarder is hacked to death.
#17: May 14, 2016: Buddhist priest Maung Shue U, 70, of Chakpara temple at Baishari of Naikhongchhari in Bandarban is slaughtered.
#18: May 20, 2016: Kushtia homoeopathic doctor and Baul fan Sanwar Hossain, 60, is hacked to death; his friend and Islami University teacher Saifuzzaman is injured in the attack.
#19: May 25, 2016: Hindu shoe seller Debesh Chandra Pramanik, 68, is killed at Gobindaganj of Gaibandha.
#20: June 5, 2016: Christian grocer Sunil Gomez, 60, of Bonpara Christian Polli in Baragram of Natore is slaughtered.
#21: June 7, 2016: Hindu priest Ananda Gopal Ganguli, 64, of Kaliganj in Jhenaidah is hacked to death while going to the temple.
#22: June 10, 2016: Hindu monastery staff Nityaranjan Pandey, 62, is hacked to death at Hemayetpur of Pabna.
#23: June 30, 2016: Marma community member and Awami League leader Mong Sanu Marma is killed in Naikhongchhari of Bandarban.
#24: July 1, 2016: Hindu priest Shymanondo Das, also known as Babaji of the Sri Sri Radha Madan Gopal temple at Uttar Kastasagarha in Jhenaidah is hacked to death while plucking flowers.
#25: July 1, 2016: Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen attack in Dhaka kills 23; five attackers are killed in an army commando strike, called the Operation Thunderbolt; a total of 32 people are rescued.
#26: August 23, 2016: Hindu grocer Chittaranjan Arjya, 48, survives a machete attack in Narsingdi.
#27: March 17, 2017: Suicide attack inside RAB barracks in Ashkona, Dhaka injures two.
#28: March 24, 2017: Suicide attacker mistakenly kills himself before attacking a police check post near Dhaka airport intersection; 3-4 people are injured.
#29: March 25, 2017: Seven people, including RAB intelligence chief Lt Col Abul Kalam Azad, are killed and more than 50 injured in a suicide/time bomb blast near a militant hideout in Sylhet.
Attacks by the same group but not claimed:
#1: October 5, 2015: Murder attempt on Christian priest Luke Sarker at Ishwardi in Pabna.
#2. October 22, 2015: ASI Ibrahim Molla is stabbed dead, and another injured at Gabtoli police check post.
#3: November 12, 2015: Shia shrine caretaker Hasnaine survives a machete attack at the Protiki Karbala in Saidpur, Nilphamari.
#4: November 30, 2015: ISKCON’s Dinajpur district unit President Birendra Nath Roy survives a gun attack.
#5: December 4, 2015: Bombs are blasted at Kantajew Temple at Kaharole, Dinajpur.
#6: December 10, 2015: Bomb and gun attack on ISKCON temple in Dinajpur.
#7: December 10, 2015: Baul fan Zakaria Hossain Zakir is hacked to death by a group of 10-12 people at Akundabaria in Chuadanga.
#8: December 18, 2015: A suicide grenade attack on Navy base mosques in Chittagong injures 24 people.
#9: April 22, 2016: Septuagenarian Hindu priest Poromanondo Roy succumbs to injuries a day after being stabbed at a village haat at Tungipara in Gopalganj.
#10: July 7, 2016: Attack on the police at Sholakia Eid congregation with hand bombs, guns and machete kills two policemen and a woman.
IS-inspired attacks:
#1: March 13, 2017: A Pir and his adopted daughter are shot dead and slaughtered in Bochaganj, Dinajpur.
#2: May 8, 2017: The imam of an Ahmadiyya mosque is injured in a machete attack at Ishwarganj, Mymensingh.
#3: August 16, 2017: Shrine caretaker Sona Mia is killed in a machete attack by three youths at Sonaimuri in Noakhali.
#4: September 13, 2017: Two women, including the caretaker of a shrine, are killed in Munshiganj.
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