It has happened again. A man from a religious minority group has been hacked to death in broad daylight within weeks of the killing of three others, two Hindus and a Christian. But to say that these murders are targeted against the religious minorities alone will be an exaggeration.
Only two weeks earlier, the wife of a senior police official, a Muslim, was killed in broad daylight in a busy city.
Prior to that, a village doctor, also a Muslim, was hacked to death while riding a motor bike along with a university teacher. Obviously, the targets are not religious minorities alone. Is there a pattern in these killings? Do we know who are behind them?
In Bangladesh, some of us may pretend to not know the answer, but the whole world outside seems to have a good sense of what is going on in the country.
The foreign press has, time and again, mentioned the prospect of the rise of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh, pointing at the alarming rise in the brutal murders of people identified as being secular or people from religious minorities.
There have been at least two dozen murders in the last two years of people of all sections of society: Teachers, bloggers, writers, religious minority, and even foreigners. None of these has been solved, not to speak of bringing the real perpetrators to justice.
Instead, we have official rhetoric of hounding the criminals without delay, and broad-brush accusations against political parties opposed to the government for the killings so as to destabilise the government and tarnish its image.
At no point has there been any official acknowledgement of the possibility of the rise and existence of a militant group in the country that has a more sinister design and objective than just embarrassing the government.
It may be fair to argue that in the current scale of terrorism and Islamic militancy that is seen in other countries, a targeted killing of individuals by some hired thugs does not necessarily mean that the country is falling into the grips of a militant organisation which is about to challenge the government.
After all, the country has yet to witness a devastation of the kind many other countries have seen recently in the shape of a massive bomb attack or suicide mission.
But the history of the past two decades in many Muslim countries show how militancy spread from small incidents of stray killing to more organised devastation and finally to battle. History also shows how the denial of any nascent religious militancy by a government has led to tragic consequences both for the government and people at large.
Pakistan paid a heavy toll in human lives and international reputation because of its negligence of the signs of a brewing Islamic militancy in the famous Lal Masjid of Islamabad earlier this century.
The history of the past two decades in many Muslim countries shows how militancy spread from small incidents of stray killing to more organised devastation and finally to battle
The initial denial of the growth of a radical group in the heart of the capital by the Pakistan government has led to the rise of a Frankenstein’s monster that the government had to deal with at great cost.
For militancy to rise and operate in today’s environment, the best way is through intimidation and the overpowering of opposition by sudden attacks.
These can take place either by the tactics adopted by the militants in other countries such as massive killing by bomb attacks, suicide missions, or by targeted killing. The acts of terrorism in Bangladesh so far have been targeted killings.
But it will be too simplistic, or even dangerous, to explain away these attacks as random terrorism or political vendetta.
This not only gives more leeway to the would-be militants to organise more massive attacks, but also gives opportunities to our law enforcement agencies to refrain from chasing the real perpetrators of these crimes and their organisations.
Security of the nation and people is a paramount objective of any government.
A country has a defense force to protect its external borders and a law enforcement agency to protect its people.
An external threat is the responsibility of the defense force; an internal threat is the responsibility of the law enforcement agency.
But these agencies have to be guided properly and directions have to be given to them clearly by the political authority that runs the government. In a situation where the directions are muddled, the results will also be muddled.
In the current situation, a clear and unambiguous direction needs to be given by the government to its law enforcement agency to investigate quickly and arraign the perpetrators of the murder spree in the country, whether the victims are religious minorities or teachers or bloggers.
Speeches by our leaders on presumption need to stop. Because these utterances only derail the real investigation and identification of the militants.
The first big step in stopping the murder spree in the country is to assure people that determined and firm action is being taken to confront the danger of militancy that the country faces.
And this danger is not necessarily posed by the opposition political parties, or by anti-liberation forces.
This is a global phenomenon and its leadership and organisational inspiration are not necessarily homegrown. This is not a simple game of tarnishing the image of the country.
This is a game of some people’s twisted ideology who would like Bangladesh to become a country as they would want it to be.
In this battle, the law enforcement agencies have to be given directions to chase the real perpetrators of the crime and show some immediate results without going after the usual suspects.
