A newly-surfaced jihadist group in Bangladesh is targeting Sheikh Hasina, former Prime Minister and daughter of the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. One principal reason why may be that she is a champion of democracy. From ANI:
An Islamic outfit called the Hikmat-ul-Jihad has claimed responsibility for Saturday's grenade attack at an Awami League rally that was addressed by former Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina.In an e-mail to a Bangla daily here, the HUJ also issued a fresh threat to kill Sheikh Hasina within a week.
"Don't think that Sheikh Hasina is out of danger. We missed out the previous chance, but now we are very careful about our mission. Tell her to be prepared. We are coming and this time we will accomplish our target within seven days," the message addressed to the Daily Prothom Alo said.
During the war for Bangladesh's independence, it was the mosques that were the centers of collaboration with the army of West Pakistan. The rape, looting, and mass murder which that army engaged in against not only Hindus in Bangladesh, but against all Muslims who were on the side of the independence movement, were supported by many of the Muslim clergy and those who thought, or said they thought, that the destiny of Islam depended on East Pakistan remaining under West Pakistan's continued control. More about this can be found in articles, by Bengalis who lived through that period, at www.faithfreedom.com and www.secularislam.com. The link between the razakars and the maulanas are detailed in those articles. Anyone interested in what actualy went on in 1971, which caused millions of deaths and millions of refugees, just as the jihad against the black African Christians of the Biafran War (1967-1969) caused a million civilian casualties (Egyptian pilots, in the service of the Muslim forces of the north, bombed Christian villages with great abandon and delight.
The role of Islam in Bangladesh, as the motivation for those who actively collaborated in the war on their own country -- putting a supposed loyalty to Islam over any loyalty to Bangladesh and to fellow Bengalis - is worth noting. A subject not to be forgotten -- or to be learned if never known -- not least by Bengalis abroad, who have the freedom to read and to inform themselves, and who may have been told by relatives, or lived through themselves, the massacres of the war for independence from West Pakistan.
This story is also in the South Asia section of BBC World News.