Our very own Hydra

Hydra, a water beast with nine heads and poisonous breath in Greek Mythology, couldn't be killed simply by severing its head because each of the heads would grow back. The stump of each severed head had to be burned to prevent it from growing back. With the help of Iolaus, Hercules eventually managed to slaughter Hydra.

Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), are like Hydras in Bangladesh with many roots in different names. Simply putting their cadres into jail is like severing Hydra's heads. Failing to prosecute the alleged Jamaat and Shibir terrorists in the courts will surely have far reaching consequences.

The Shibir attack on Rajshahi University students on Feb 8-9 wasn't a separate isolated incident. It has rather been a part of the concerted effort by the Shibir to eradicate progressive and pro-liberation activities since its birth on Feb 4, 1977. The most audacious terrorist act of the Shibir on RU campus was on March 17, 1992. On that day, thousands of armed cadres led by Chittagong University ICS cadre, Shirajus Salehin, took control of the RU campus by burning down three student dormitories, namely, SM Hall, Anwar Hall and Latif Hall. Latif Hall was completely demolished with gun power, killing one student and injuring 150 more. Nothing like this had ever happened before 1992, nor afterwards. Latif Hall still bear signs of the destruction.

The partial account of hundreds of terrorist activities of Shibir from 1982 to 2010, published in the weekly Shapatahik, Feb 18, 2010, reveals at least three distinct features of Shibir atrocities. First, its wrath appears to fall heavily on the progressive and pro-liberation activists. Second, in most attacks, Shibir cadres used sharp weapons, like knives, cleavers, machetes, choppers and cut-throat razors, either to sever the victims' tendons, to slit their throats or to hack people. Third, the use of sharp weapons is indicative of the Shibir's penchant for medieval style violence to terrorise opponents.

The way hundreds of armed Shibir cadres held off thousands of opposition activists on Oct 28, 2006 in downtown Dhaka, indicates how ferocious and tenacious they can get when confronting popular upsurge. Reports published in an English daily on Oct 29, 2006 and other dailies show that while some Shibir cadres fired at the protesters, others helped reload the guns. The confrontation led to the death of seven persons including two Awami League activists, one Jubo Moitri activist, two Shibir cadres and two unidentified individuals.

What motivates Jamaat and Shibir to go against the state machinery? Are they above the law?

At least two motivations underlie their terrorist activities and defiance of the laws of the state. First, the electoral defeat in 2008 and impending war crime trials put Jamaat and Shibir on the brink of annihilation. At this juncture, they risk losing their grip on religion-based politics if they do nothing. Therefore, it must be to their best interest to drag the government into direct confrontation. Confrontational politics usually go against the government, resulting in loss of popular support. Loss of popular support for the government, in turn, will help the fundamentalist Jamaat and its student wing Shibir to build a larger coalition of religion-based right-wing organisations, making it difficult for the government to accomplish its agenda — trial of war crimes, among other things.

Second, Jamaat and Shibir adhere to strategies surprisingly similar to those adopted by the Hindu nationalists of India and the Hamas of Palestine, which eventually installed them in power. The meteoric rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hamas can be attributed to inter alia their adherence to religious nationalism, resorting to effective campaign of violence against political and religious minorities, and failure of the secular and liberal political forces to live up to the expectation of the people. [The atrocities of the Israeli government against Palestinian civilians and the failure of the US government to successfully negotiate with the more secular Fatah are also believed to be reasons behind people voting for Hamas.]

The intensity of suicidal terror campaign of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine during 2000-05, the demolition of Babri mosque by Hindu extremists in Dec 1992 and the genocidal act of Gujarat in 2002 in India seem to be correlated with the electoral victories of Hamas in 2006 and BJP in 1998. For example, following the first attempt on Babri mosque in 1990, BJP won 120 seats in the Indian general elections in 1991, a spectacular gain from only 2 seats in 1984 and 85 seats in 1989. The second attack which completely demolished the Babri Mosque in 1992 put BJP into political power in 1998 with 182 seats, a spectacular success by any measure. One aspect in the success of both these cases is that the path to political power was built on the blood of thousands of innocent lives.

Perhaps, the capacity of both Jamaat and Shibir to perpetrate violence against progressive and pro-liberation forces makes them a highly coveted partner to have. During 2001-06, being a partner of the BNP-led coalition government, Jamaat's strong influence in controlling the government's agenda, placing its cadres in government offices, educational institutions, religious organisations, and penetrating diplomatic missions and security agencies should substantiate that claim convincingly. And, for the first time, as the testimonies of various individuals show, Jamaat's complicity to state sponsored terrorists is beginning to come out.

Surprisingly, however, not a single Jamaat or Shibir cadre has ever been prosecuted for any of the alleged crimes. Neither has a single Shibir cadre ever been arraigned for any of their atrocities. Following the past tradition, if the alleged perpetrators of the fundamentalist party are allowed to walk free, then the venom of the re-grown fang of Jamaat-Shibir terrorists will harm the progressive and pro-liberation forces all the more.

To keep that from happening, the government must combine judicial prosecution with effective campaign making both the public and the international community aware of the consequences of the fundamentalists' rise to state power. The government must not do anything where it ends up losing public support and making extremists look as if they are the victims of a government witch-hunt. Only an effective prosecution and public campaign will deny extremist outfits opportunities to resort to violence and spread the venom of hatred.