The Islamist extremists of Bangladesh have found a new target to attack. They are a sect of Islam known as Ahmadiyas. The radicals are unwilling to accept them as Muslims and had issued a series of ultimatums to government to declare Ahmadiyas as non-Muslims. As the violence against the Ahmadiyas is spreading and engulfing more and more areas, the government of Bangladesh has started yielding to the irrational demands of the fundamentalists.

In Bangladesh, there are about 100,000 followers of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Kadiani whom they respect as a guide of the Muslims after Prophet Mohammad. The members of this sect are known as Ahmadiyas or Qadianis. The mainstream Sunni Muslim leaders refuse to accept Ahmadiyas as Muslims and brand them as Kaffir (non-Muslims). They have demanded declaration of the Ahmadiya sect as non-Muslims and want closure of their mosques.

There is a long history of violence against Ahmadiyas in Bangladesh. In October 1992, some people had vandalised Bakshibazar Ahmadiya mosque in Dhaka city. In the same year mosques of Ahmadiyas at Khulna and Rajshahi were also attacked. In 1998, three mosques at Rangotia village in Sherpur, Gaibandha and Mongla in Khulna were attacked. A major incident took place on 8 October 1999 when a bomb exploded in a mosque at Nirala Residential Area in Khulna during Friday prayers, which left seven Ahmadiyas dead and 27 injured. In the same year another mosque at Daulatpur in Kushtia came under bomb attack causing several injuries.

Violence against the Ahmadiyas has surged again in recent months. Fanatics killed an Ahmadiya Imam on 1 November 2003 in Jessore following an altercation on religious beliefs. In the same month, at Balardiya village of Sharishabari Pourasabha of Jamalpur, a militant group damaged one of their mosques and called an anti-Ahmadiya demonstration there. Militants raided the house of Abu Sama Sarkar and damaged a corrugated iron-roof mosque on the premises. In Kushtia, an Ahmadiya community of 13 families came under attacks in October that left a woman dead. Ahmadiyas of Fazilpur are also facing boycott by the locals in Feni district.

The Islamists in Bangladesh have formed an anti-Ahmadiya alliance called the Hifazate Khatme Nabuwat Andolon (HKNA) whose Amir (chief) is Mohammad Mahmudul Hasan Mamtaji. He is also a leader of Jaise Mostafa, an Islamist outfit. A major constituent of HKNA is Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), a radical organization that is a partner of the ruling coalition. The HKNA has organized a series of demonstrations since 21 November 2003 to get Ahmadiyas declared as non-Muslims and to capture their mosques. They also clashed with the police and gave the government 9 January as a deadline to accept their demand. They have asked the Government to pass a law in the Parliament declaring Ahmadiyas as ‘non-Muslims’. Mamtaji has urged the 'real Muslims' to wage a Jehad against the Ahmadiyas who, according to him, were stigmatising Islam by calling themselves Muslims.

The government of Bangladesh appears to have finally yielded to the demand of the fanatics. The Home Ministry of Bangladesh on 8 January, just a day before the end of the deadline, through a press release banned the sale, publication and distribution of all books and booklets on Islam published by the Ahmadiya Muslim Jamaat. Many in Bangladesh believe that the move is the first step towards declaring about hundred thousand Ahmadiyas in the country non-Muslims.

Though the government denies that the decision was taken under pressure from one of its constituents Islamic Oikya Jote (IOJ) that had started the agitation and was leading it, Ahmadiyas believe otherwise. They think that the government has surrendered to religious terrorists and has accepted their irrational demand. The Ahmadiya community is shocked and their leaders feel that the government’s decision has violated their right to freedom of expression as enshrined in the constitution.

The violence against the Ahmadiyas has been fuelled by the Islamists of Bangladesh who are using their political clout and their cadre base to impose their extremist views on other sections of the society. A number of fundamentalist leaders and several Imams have played a key role in inciting violence against the community by giving rabble-rousing statements. Islamist extremists are spearheading the agitation against the Ahmadiyas and the participation of some parties who are part of the ruling coalition has given the government little leeway to act. The government does not want to upset its alliance with Islamists, but as long as Islamists are part of the alliance, it would be difficult for the government to check this violence.