An attempt on the life of a poet lays bare sinister links and madrassah skeletons.
While most people were preparing to celebrate Eid in Dhaka on 18 January, members of an Islamic extremist group called Harkatul Jihad were attempting to axe to death Shamshur Rahman, Bangladesh's leading poet and avowed opponent of communalism. Rahman survived, and so did his wife, who took an axe blow in the scuffle while shielding her husband. The 18 January incident at Rahman's home shook Bangla-deshis, not only because no one had really expected the poet to be marked for such an attack, but because the organisation behind it, as admitted by the police, is patronised by none else than the Afghanistan-based Saudi Arabian mafioso Osama bin Laden. The group is apparently awash with men and money and has a well-planned agenda on hand to foment violence.
Harkatul Jihad suddenly became what many political parties dream becoming-a household name. It was reported that the extremists had set up an extensive network across the country and training centres were operating in several districts to churn out various types of cadres, including of the armed variety. The thousands of religious seminaries or madrassahs (many run with government funds) were identified in the ongoing investigation as where the 'holy warriors' were springing from.
That bin Laden had a foot in the mushy soil of Bangladesh had been rumoured for months, the daily Prothom Alo reported that a number of Islamic activists had been arrested on charges of reprinting and distributing bin Laden's agitprop. A printing press was raided and 'holy war' materials, such as manuals on conducting "terrorist activities", were seized.