07-02-2016, 09:20 PM
*** 3-Jul-16 World View -- Bangladesh tries to recover from Dhaka terror attack, the worst in 40 years
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Bangladesh tries to recover from Dhaka terror attack, the worst in 40 years
****
![[Image: g160702b.jpg]](http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g160702b.jpg)
Photos of five of the attackers, appearing on an ISIS-linked web site
"Blood, shock and horror" are the words being used by Bangladeshis to
describe the grim news from the Friday overnight terror attack that we reported yesterday
at the bakery
in the in the highly secure Gulshan diplomatic enclave of Dhaka, the
capital city of Bangladesh.
We've previously reported on several of the 18 jihadist attacks in
Bangladesh in the last year, as in "24-Apr-2016 World View -- Bangladesh in shock after university professor hacked to death"
. These attacks targeted upper
class secular bloggers and liberals. The attacks typically took place
in full public view, as gang arrives on motorcycles to attack
individuals, butcher them with machetes in the middle of crowded
streets and then take off.
However, for the first time, the attack targeted foreigners and was a
lengthy siege lasting over twelve hours. Nine of the victims were
Italian, seven were Japanese, one was from India, two were Bangladeshi
and one was a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin. The victims were
among roughly three dozen people taken hostage. It's the first time
that hostages have been taken in 40 years, and it's being called
"Bangladesh's 26/11," in comparison to the three-day '26/11' terror attack in Mumbai India
of
November 2008.
The so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh) claimed
credit through its Amaq News Agency, and backed up the claim by
posting photos of the carnage in the cafe hours before the police
entered the cafe.
I am among those analysts who do not believe that this was an ISIS
operation. I do not believe that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, from his ISIS
headquarters in Syria, sent out a team of jihadists to a cafe in Dhaka
Bangladesh to carry out this attack. Indeed, the Bangladesh police
say that all of the perpetrators were Bangladeshi locals, not foreign
fighters. It's possible that ISIS supported the operation and even
provided some money, but at most it was a local home-grown operation
piggybacking on ISIS's public relations facilities for their mutual
benefit.
Indeed, as I've written repeatedly, these terror attacks almost
certainly were conducted by ethnic Bihari activists targeting ethnic
Bengalis. The difference this time was that they copied ISIS's
tactics, and used ISIS for support.
In fact, Bangladesh suffered an even larger terrorist attack in
February 2009, before ISIS even existed, that was even more horrific,
except that it didn't target foreigners. 76 Bangladesh army border
guard officers were mutilated and killed in a 33-hour massacre that
shocked the country for its brutality. The perpetrators were the
troops reporting to them. Bodies of officers and their wives were
mutilated and piled into mass graves. ( "(4-March-2009) FBI will aid Bangladesh investigation of border guard officer massacre"
) In the end, a total of 847
defendants were tried, en masse, and 152 sentenced to hang, with
hundreds more facing long jail terms. ISIS didn't exist in 2009, but
if it had, they might have claimed credit for the border guard officer
massacre.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wondered how the terrorists
could do this to their own country. She said the usual things about
these attacks being "intolerable" and that she was determined to
"eradicate" the terrorists:
[indent]<QUOTE>"There is no place for terrorists or terrorism on
Bangladesh's soil. People must resist these terrorists. My
government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from
Bangladesh.
It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these
who kill other people during Ramadan?"<END QUOTE>[/indent]
One thing that Hasina always did in the past but didn't do this time
was to specifically blame the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and
its ally Jamaat-e-Islam for perpetrating the violence. The BNP is a
Bihari political party, so she was using BNP as a code word for
Bihari. However, BNP leaders insisted that their political party does
not support Bihari violence, and so this time, because of the severity
of the attack, Hasina was trying not to be divisive. Daily Star (Dhaka) and Dhaka Tribune and CNN
****
**** Suspicions that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency supported the Dhaka attack
****
Some analysts, especially in India, believe that the Dhaka attack was
perpetrated by a Taliban-linked group in Pakistan, supported by
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
Besides mere suspicions, there are two major reasons that give
plausibility to these accusations.
First, the Dhaka attacks were similar in nature to the November 2008
three-day '26/11' terror attack in Mumbai.
That attack was perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a
Pakistani terrorist group with known connections to ISI, though ISI
claims that the connections were severed long ago. The Mumbai attack
almost resulted in war, as India threatened to invade Pakistani soil
to go after Lashkar-e-Toiba. War was only avoided by hard
intervention from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Second, Bangladesh was originally part of Pakistan, and was known as
East Pakistan. One of the worst wars of the 20th century was the
bloody genocidal war between Hindus and Muslims that followed
Partition, the 1947 partitioning of the Indian subcontinent into India
and Pakistan, with the latter split into West and East Pakistan. The
scale of civilian displacement from their homes was so massive that it
was called by some an "exodus of biblical proportions," since it
forced millions of Hindus in Pakistan to flee to India, and millions
of Muslims in India to flee to Pakistan.
However, that was a generational crisis war only for West Pakistan and
western India. Eastern India and East Pakistan are on a different
generational timeline, and their crisis war was the bloody civil war
of 1971, mainly between the Biharis and the Bengalis of East Pakistan.
The outcome of that war was that East Pakistan became an independent
country, Bangladesh.
In the Bangladesh of today, the Bengali-speaking Bengalis are the
dominant ethnic group, and the Urdu-speaking Biharis, who originally
were from India, are the subservient ethnic group.
But that's a flip-flop from how things were in 1949, after the
Partition war. At that time, Pakistan declared that Urdu was the
official language of both West and East Pakistan, and that the Bengali
language was to be marginalized. The Urdu-speaking Biharis became the
dominant group, and the Bengali-speaking Bengalis were subservient.
In the 1971 war, the Pakistan army was on the side of the Biharis,
fighting against the Bengalis, who were supported by India. The war
was incredibly brutal, especially the behavior of the Pakistan army
toward the Bengalis. Stories of rape, beheadings and mutilation of
Bengali civilians were common. The Bengalis won, making Bangladesh an
independent nation, and after that the Bengalis were the dominant
ethnic group.
Pakistan today still favors the subservient Biharis over the dominant
Bengalis, and so it's quite plausible, though unproven, that the
Bihari terrorists received support for Friday's attack from Pakistan's
ISI.
(In researching this article, I noticed something strange. The Taliban Easter attack on Lahore in Pakistan
on March 29 took place in Lahore's Gulshan Iqbal Park.
Saturday's terrorist attack took place in the Gulshan diplomatic
enclave of Dhaka. None of the news reports notes this connection, so
perhaps it's just a coincidence, but I thought it to be worth
mentioning.) Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (PDF-2001) and My Golden Bengal (21-July-2013) and Swarajya (India)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Gulshan diplomatic enclave,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Amaq News Agency, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi,
Hindus, Muslims, Bihari, Urdu, Bengali, Sheikh Hasina, Ramadan,
Bangladesh Nationalist Party, BNP, Jamaat-e-Islam,
Pakistan, Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI, Mumbai, India,
Lashkar-e-Toiba, LeT, Condoleezza Rice, East Pakistan,
Taliban, Lahore, Gulshan Iqbal Park
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Bangladesh tries to recover from Dhaka terror attack, the worst in 40 years
- Suspicions that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency supported the Dhaka attack
****
**** Bangladesh tries to recover from Dhaka terror attack, the worst in 40 years
****
Photos of five of the attackers, appearing on an ISIS-linked web site
"Blood, shock and horror" are the words being used by Bangladeshis to
describe the grim news from the Friday overnight terror attack that we reported yesterday
at the bakery
in the in the highly secure Gulshan diplomatic enclave of Dhaka, the
capital city of Bangladesh.
We've previously reported on several of the 18 jihadist attacks in
Bangladesh in the last year, as in "24-Apr-2016 World View -- Bangladesh in shock after university professor hacked to death"
. These attacks targeted upper
class secular bloggers and liberals. The attacks typically took place
in full public view, as gang arrives on motorcycles to attack
individuals, butcher them with machetes in the middle of crowded
streets and then take off.
However, for the first time, the attack targeted foreigners and was a
lengthy siege lasting over twelve hours. Nine of the victims were
Italian, seven were Japanese, one was from India, two were Bangladeshi
and one was a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin. The victims were
among roughly three dozen people taken hostage. It's the first time
that hostages have been taken in 40 years, and it's being called
"Bangladesh's 26/11," in comparison to the three-day '26/11' terror attack in Mumbai India
of
November 2008.
The so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh) claimed
credit through its Amaq News Agency, and backed up the claim by
posting photos of the carnage in the cafe hours before the police
entered the cafe.
I am among those analysts who do not believe that this was an ISIS
operation. I do not believe that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, from his ISIS
headquarters in Syria, sent out a team of jihadists to a cafe in Dhaka
Bangladesh to carry out this attack. Indeed, the Bangladesh police
say that all of the perpetrators were Bangladeshi locals, not foreign
fighters. It's possible that ISIS supported the operation and even
provided some money, but at most it was a local home-grown operation
piggybacking on ISIS's public relations facilities for their mutual
benefit.
Indeed, as I've written repeatedly, these terror attacks almost
certainly were conducted by ethnic Bihari activists targeting ethnic
Bengalis. The difference this time was that they copied ISIS's
tactics, and used ISIS for support.
In fact, Bangladesh suffered an even larger terrorist attack in
February 2009, before ISIS even existed, that was even more horrific,
except that it didn't target foreigners. 76 Bangladesh army border
guard officers were mutilated and killed in a 33-hour massacre that
shocked the country for its brutality. The perpetrators were the
troops reporting to them. Bodies of officers and their wives were
mutilated and piled into mass graves. ( "(4-March-2009) FBI will aid Bangladesh investigation of border guard officer massacre"
) In the end, a total of 847
defendants were tried, en masse, and 152 sentenced to hang, with
hundreds more facing long jail terms. ISIS didn't exist in 2009, but
if it had, they might have claimed credit for the border guard officer
massacre.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wondered how the terrorists
could do this to their own country. She said the usual things about
these attacks being "intolerable" and that she was determined to
"eradicate" the terrorists:
[indent]<QUOTE>"There is no place for terrorists or terrorism on
Bangladesh's soil. People must resist these terrorists. My
government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from
Bangladesh.
It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these
who kill other people during Ramadan?"<END QUOTE>[/indent]
One thing that Hasina always did in the past but didn't do this time
was to specifically blame the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and
its ally Jamaat-e-Islam for perpetrating the violence. The BNP is a
Bihari political party, so she was using BNP as a code word for
Bihari. However, BNP leaders insisted that their political party does
not support Bihari violence, and so this time, because of the severity
of the attack, Hasina was trying not to be divisive. Daily Star (Dhaka) and Dhaka Tribune and CNN
****
**** Suspicions that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency supported the Dhaka attack
****
Some analysts, especially in India, believe that the Dhaka attack was
perpetrated by a Taliban-linked group in Pakistan, supported by
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
Besides mere suspicions, there are two major reasons that give
plausibility to these accusations.
First, the Dhaka attacks were similar in nature to the November 2008
three-day '26/11' terror attack in Mumbai.
That attack was perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a
Pakistani terrorist group with known connections to ISI, though ISI
claims that the connections were severed long ago. The Mumbai attack
almost resulted in war, as India threatened to invade Pakistani soil
to go after Lashkar-e-Toiba. War was only avoided by hard
intervention from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Second, Bangladesh was originally part of Pakistan, and was known as
East Pakistan. One of the worst wars of the 20th century was the
bloody genocidal war between Hindus and Muslims that followed
Partition, the 1947 partitioning of the Indian subcontinent into India
and Pakistan, with the latter split into West and East Pakistan. The
scale of civilian displacement from their homes was so massive that it
was called by some an "exodus of biblical proportions," since it
forced millions of Hindus in Pakistan to flee to India, and millions
of Muslims in India to flee to Pakistan.
However, that was a generational crisis war only for West Pakistan and
western India. Eastern India and East Pakistan are on a different
generational timeline, and their crisis war was the bloody civil war
of 1971, mainly between the Biharis and the Bengalis of East Pakistan.
The outcome of that war was that East Pakistan became an independent
country, Bangladesh.
In the Bangladesh of today, the Bengali-speaking Bengalis are the
dominant ethnic group, and the Urdu-speaking Biharis, who originally
were from India, are the subservient ethnic group.
But that's a flip-flop from how things were in 1949, after the
Partition war. At that time, Pakistan declared that Urdu was the
official language of both West and East Pakistan, and that the Bengali
language was to be marginalized. The Urdu-speaking Biharis became the
dominant group, and the Bengali-speaking Bengalis were subservient.
In the 1971 war, the Pakistan army was on the side of the Biharis,
fighting against the Bengalis, who were supported by India. The war
was incredibly brutal, especially the behavior of the Pakistan army
toward the Bengalis. Stories of rape, beheadings and mutilation of
Bengali civilians were common. The Bengalis won, making Bangladesh an
independent nation, and after that the Bengalis were the dominant
ethnic group.
Pakistan today still favors the subservient Biharis over the dominant
Bengalis, and so it's quite plausible, though unproven, that the
Bihari terrorists received support for Friday's attack from Pakistan's
ISI.
(In researching this article, I noticed something strange. The Taliban Easter attack on Lahore in Pakistan
on March 29 took place in Lahore's Gulshan Iqbal Park.
Saturday's terrorist attack took place in the Gulshan diplomatic
enclave of Dhaka. None of the news reports notes this connection, so
perhaps it's just a coincidence, but I thought it to be worth
mentioning.) Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (PDF-2001) and My Golden Bengal (21-July-2013) and Swarajya (India)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Gulshan diplomatic enclave,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Amaq News Agency, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi,
Hindus, Muslims, Bihari, Urdu, Bengali, Sheikh Hasina, Ramadan,
Bangladesh Nationalist Party, BNP, Jamaat-e-Islam,
Pakistan, Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI, Mumbai, India,
Lashkar-e-Toiba, LeT, Condoleezza Rice, East Pakistan,
Taliban, Lahore, Gulshan Iqbal Park
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
