Dhaka: Bangladesh police on Saturday detained over 3,000 people, including 37 suspected Islamists, on the first day of a nationwide anti-terrorist drive after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on vowed to hunt down those behind the recent targeted killings of bloggers and minorities.
“Where will they hide in Bangladesh,” Hasina asked during a meeting of the Awami League’s working committee, and warned: “No one will get away”.
“It’s not a tough task to find them. They will be brought to justice,” Hasina told the meeting at her official residence, the Gana Bhaban.
“It’s just a matter of time,” added the Awami League chief.
Speaking to Parliament on Wednesday, Hasina vowed to root out radicals bent on spreading terror and violence in a bid to restore the country to Islamic rule.
"If they think they could turn Bangladesh upside down, they are wrong," she said. "They will be exposed to justice in the soil of Bangladesh and their patrons will also not be spared."
Inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Hoque said the week-long drive was aimed at dismantling all terrorist outfits and their networks in the country.
On Friday, a Hindu monastery worker was hacked to death in Pabna district.
Alamgir Kabir, the district’s police chief, said the motive behind the killing was not yet known.
Of the 3,192 arrested, 1,861 were held after arrest warrants were issued by court, police said in a media release on Saturday.
Hasina had announced the anti-militancy campaign after the wife of a police officer Babul Aktar’s wife Mahmuda Aktar Mituwas shot and stabbed to death on June 5 as she was waiting with her son at a bus stop. The victim had been an ardent campaigner against Islamist militants, and her murder stunned the country's establishment, many of whom considered the victim as one of their own.
Mahmuda’s murder was strikingly similar to the attacks carried out by suspected Islamist militants on secular writers, bloggers, online activists and people of different religious views.
Bangladesh has been facing a surge in violent attacks in recent months.
A number of secular writers, bloggers and publishers were killed or seriously injured in attacks carried out by extremists since 2013.
The wave of suspected militant attacks since last year, which has left more than 30 dead, has put Bangladesh in the spotlight in the global arena.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for 21 of the attacks while al Qaeda has claimed most of the rest, according to monitoring group SITE Intelligence.
The government, however, denies the presence of the groups in Bangladesh and has blamed “home-grown” militants for the killings.
Condemning the killings in the name of religion, Hasina said that Islam does not permit taking anyone’s life.
“What kind of religious practice is this killing of innocent people,” she asked, adding that the attacks were aimed at spoiling religious harmony in Bangladesh.
She once again blamed the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and its ally the Jamaat-e-Islami for the recent killings.
Amnesty International has criticized the government for inaction, saying it is creating a culture of impunity. It also said authorities are failing to address increasing numbers of reports of people receiving threats.
"The brazen announcement by violent groups that they will continue targeting those they perceive as 'insulting Islam' should shake the Bangladeshi authorities out of their complacency," Champa Patel, the right's group's director in South Asia, said in a statement. "Ignoring the problem is not a solution. The authorities must categorically condemn these killings, carry out a prompt, thorough, impartial and transparent investigation, deliver justice for the victims, hold the perpetrators accountable, and protect those still under threat."
Nearly all the attacks have been claimed by transnational Islamist extremist groups, including the Islamic State group and various affiliates of al-Qaida. The killing Friday morning of a Hindu ashram worker in northern Bangladesh was also claimed by the IS group, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online and cited the Amaq News Agency.
Hasina's government, however, says transnational terror groups have no presence in the South Asian nation of 160 million. It blames the attacks on domestic groups aligned with political opposition parties, though it has presented no evidence of such a campaign and the opposition denies the allegations.
(With inputs from agencies)
