India has been blaming Bangladesh for quite sometime now for sheltering terrorists operating in India’s northeast, and for becoming a new haven for Islamist extremist forces including the al-Qaeda. The ruling coalition of Bangladesh has faced similar accusations within the country from the main opposition party, the Awami League.

In January 2002, the opposition leader, Shaikh Hasina, during a visit to London alleged that the two ministers in the ruling alliance were having links with the Taliban. The opposition reiterated these charges after a series of bomb blasts rocked the country recently.

The government countered the Indian charges by saying that they were leveled by an unfriendly neighbour, and termed them as malicious propaganda. It also said that the main opposition party was making baseless allegations, as it had lost power in the October 2001 elections.

But some recent incidents have put the government on the defensive. It has also established the presence of Islamist extremist forces in Bangladesh. On February 13, a series of bomb blasts took place inside a tin-shed house in Chhoto Gurgola area in Dinajpur town, leaving three persons injured. Besides arms and ammunition the police recovered subscription receipts and leaflets of an extremist outfit, Za'amatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (ZMB), and some hand-written directives. Two employees of Hazrat Aayisa Siddiqa Salafia Islamia Girls' Madrassa were among the arrested.    The Police were also able to trace a number of fanatics whose addresses were stored in the mobile phone recovered from the blast site.

Police later confirmed that the hideout belonged to ZMB, and that its militants had planned to bomb several functions in the area.  It was also revealed that the organization was doing its "underground work" in the region for more than a year and eight of its activists had been arrested on 20 May 2002. Moreover, the madrassa teacher, Faruk, who was arrested after the blasts, was the ringleader of the outfit, which has about twenty-five activists and several hideouts.

The Awami League demanded a probe into the Dinajpur explosions. Its senior parliamentarian Suranjit Sengupta wanted a parliamentary committee to report on these blasts, to which the government did not agree.

But the sustained opposition pressure resulted in the ban of another extremist organization, Shahdat-e-Al-Hikma, which was floated on February 8 after a press conference in Rajshahi. Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury stated in parliament that the organization was banned as it was found to be a threat to law and order, and the security of the country. This was the first time when the government officially accepted the existence of such organizations in the country. During the launch of Al Hikma, its convener, Kawser Hossain Siddique, declared that it was financed by the notorious underworld don and Mumbai blast accused, Dawood Ibrahim.

This was not an isolated incident, soon thereafter two men were arrested near the Benapole border for carrying arms and explosives. Their interrogation revealed that they had plans to carry out subversive activities. It was also found that they were professional arms traffickers.

The extent of the activities of Islamists was revealed on March 11 when the police unearthed a training centre of the Za'amatul Mujahideen in the frontier town of Chapainawabganj. They arrested five militants and seized explosives, fire-arms and incriminating documents, including manuals on Jihad, Talibanism and instructions on making time bombs. Many of the audiocassettes had titles like “Taleban,â€Â