Crossfire War: Bangladesh – “Third Call” – Unprecedented Bomb Attacks

Crossfire War: South Asia; Bangladesh – “Third Call” Given in the form of Unprecedented Bomb Attacks Around the Country

Night Watch: DHAKA – Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen said the explosions were its “third call” to establish Islamic rule in the country. That was the message on leaflets that were found at the bomb sites. It’s call was heard by a series of unprecedented small bomb attacks across the country, nearly 200 homemade explosive devices, that caused nationwide panic as they exploded on the streets, at courts, important government buildings, the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave of Gulshan, outside the Dhaka international airport and outside Dhaka’s Sheraton Hotel.

Reuters reports that they all detonated within a half-hour, between 0500-0530 GMT. Only two people are known to have been killed with at least 100 wounded. Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen had been banned for issuing calls for Islamic rule but the scale of these attacks are obviously beyond the range of any one local group, unless they have substantial outside assistance from Islamic capitals who support the call and its economic agenda in controlling the nation’s resources. The timing is reminiscent of the attacks in London last month.

Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei, Iran’s new Intelligence Minister would be very well briefed about this event since it was probably an ongoing scheme carried over by the previous Iranian administration. When countries and regions are ready the Jihad will introduce itself. These attacks is the Council of Guardians version of a subtlity, attention getting. Tehran’s new Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and new Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar would also be in a position to know what was coming.

The leaflets stated, “If ignored and if our people are arrested or persecuted, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen will take counter-action. It is also to warn Bush and Blair to vacate Muslim countries, or to face Muslim upsurge.” The group, along with, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, were banned by the government in February.

The government issued security alerts for foreign ships and at refineries, power plants and fertlizer factories in this third-most populous Muslim country of 140 million. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had left this morning for a five-day visit to China just before the blasts. Though her coalition government contains Islamic parties the administration has repeatedly denied they could ever have a problem with Muslim radicals.

The radical element is by no means identifying with her or her administration and would no doubt state that the current government is not Islamic or Islamic enough. There are definitely those in the Islamic Axis, Tehran-Riyadh-Kuala Lumpur who would agree with extreme view and not for spritual purposes, useful and motivating as those purposes are. But in order to exert more control over a nation whose resources they intend to redirect toward the Islamic world and away from the West.

India’s Foreign Ministry said, quite rightly, “The scale and coordination of these explosions countrywide raises a number of questions.” Mohammad Hanif, a leader of Awami League also stated at a rally, “The bomb attacks were a conspiracy against the natin. A vested quarter deliberately did it to brand Muslims as terrorists.”

The first part of his statement is right on target but Tehran conducted it not to affect the image of Islamic people but to signal, for the last time, that Dhaka should give more of an audience to the Jihad and its economic agenda. Watch for some high level visits to now take place between Tehran-Riyadh and Dhaka. Islamabad and Kuala Lumpur may also pay a call.

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Willard Payne
Willard Payne is an international affairs analyst who specializes in International Relations. A graduate of Western Illinois University with a concentration in East-West Trade and East-West Industrial Cooperation, he has been providing incisive analysis to NewsBlaze. He is the author of Imagery: The Day Before.