Counter-terrorism expert on Bangladesh attack

(5 Jul 2016) The violence carried out by a band of young Bangladeshi men last weekend in Dhaka speaks to a deeper divide within the moderate, mostly Muslim nation of 160 million.
That divide has pitted secularists against those yearning for Islamic rule since the country won independence from Pakistan in a bloody war in 1971.
In recent years, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has cracked down on the myriad of militant groups in Bangladesh, banning many and arresting their leaders.
However the blunt and heavy-handed actions at home have left domestic radical groups frustrated and floundering, driving them to find new role models and ways of boosting their profile and grabbing public attention, analysts said.
The weekend's attack at an upscale Dhaka restaurant left 28 dead, including 20 hostages, two police officers and six of the attackers
A day after the Dhaka restaurant attack, the regional branch of al-Qaida first claimed responsibility.
Then, the Islamic State said it was responsible, and offered photographs of the carnage to back up the claim.
However analyst Ajal Sahni, a counter-terrorism expert at the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi told AP that although he believes the attack may well have been inspired by Islamic State (IS), but he did not believe the perpetrators, that he was confident were domestic, had any contact with IS.
The country's grim record of political violence dates back to its birth.
It has witnessed the assassination of two presidents, the jailing and execution of political leaders, and 19 failed coup attempts amid a struggle over the nation's identity and control of its future path.
"This is a very bloody and very personal history. It's not just a question of ideology and political differences. This is personal," Sahni said.
He believes last weekend's attack will lead Hasina's government to do everything in its power to "terminate" radical groups.
But analysts worry Hasina could be compounding the extremist problem by accusing the opposition BNP of supporting the militants in order to destabilise her government.
Hasina's Awami League Party dates back to the secular independence movement led by Hasina's father and the country's first premier, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975.
Her main political opponents in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party are led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, whose military husband General Ziaur Rahman was also a national leader and was assassinated in 1981.
Hasina's mistrust of BNP lies in part with the opposition party's alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami, an outspoken Islamist political party with a vast network of mosques and madrasas that has been banned from contesting elections.


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