Why Muslims of Assam have rejected militant Islam
My book Terror Sans Frontiers: Islamist Militancy in Northeast India, written way back in 2002, predicted not only the rise of Islamists in the Northeast and abutting areas, but also about an al Qaeda design in the region.
Although the book was written in 2002, my research had warned about the Islamist design since the late 1990s. The "transformative moment" that Islam is passing through presently had been resonating in the Northeast and Bangladesh even before the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US had occurred.
On February 23, 1998, Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement of Bangladesh of which HUJI-Bangladesh is an affiliate, signed the official declaration of jihad against the US along with others, including 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Several Muslim youths from Assam soon started going to Pakistan and Afghanistan via Bangladesh to train alongside the Islamists.
Instructions for the Assamese Islamist organisations
It must be emphasised that a majority of the Assamese Muslim youths went to places such as Batrasi in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as they were under the impression that on return they would be able to improve the lot of their Muslim brethren, for instance by helping institute 30 per cent reservation in education and employment.
Unlike NSCN or ULFA, Muslim outfits in the region do not carry the clause of secession from India, but their West Asian trainers and Pakistan's ISI goaded them into having an altogether different set of objectives such as shahadat for the cause of Islam, assassination of leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani and institution of a sovereign Islamic state.
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| Every act of barbarism by the ISIS is instantly "endorsed" by recourse to a shura (Reuters). |
Such instructions meant nothing for the Assamese Muslim youths and disenchanted, they returned to the mainstream. An important Harkat-ul-Mujahideen leader, Abu Bakr Siddiqui, told me on December 27, 2002 that they were simply asked to enter Assam, take shelter and wait for their strength to grow.
Reason for such an instruction
At that time, almost 14 years ago, it seemed as if sleeper cells were being prepared for activation later. An ISI-led campaign was already on and the special branch, Assam was able to severely dent the design. However, the sights of al Qaeda were in this region even during that time: the contiguity of an area (Lower Assam, Bangladesh, West Bengal and the Rohingya belt of Myanmar) that could possibly emerge as an important seat of Nizamiyyah for the Caliphate in construction appealed to the pan-Islamist fanatics in Osama bin Laden and his associates.
A close study of the al Qaeda would showcase that their planning is spectacularly scientific. One can be certain that Ayman-al-Zawahiri would never have made a statement (as he did in September 2014) unless al Qaeda's war effort was already in place in India, albeit through its various affiliates.
My book Terror Sans Frontiers: Islamist Militancy in Northeast India had even pointed out al Qaeda's perches in Bangladesh, most of which were established after the partial de-Talibanisation of Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Where the ISIS comes in all this
Analyses that have come to the fore in the backdrop of al-Zawahiri's September 3, 2014 statement - by which he proclaimed the creation of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent - is loaded with reference of the setbacks that the al Qaeda has faced since its peak on September 11, 2001.
The al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (according to most accounts) was created in order to counter the successes of what was once its surrogate, al Qaeda in Iraq, now the ISIS. However, I have always maintained that the dissonance between the al Qaeda and ISIS that appeared apparent to most was in reality only a deception.
But the counterterrorism establishment "lost the plot". There has always been a strategic convergence of objective between the ISIS and al Qaeda. To that end, whereas al Qaeda concentrated on an enemy located far away, the immediate goal of the ISIS was that of holding and expanding territory, which it is doing in Iraq and Syria.
However, setbacks in the field that the ISIS has been experiencing of late have led it to change tactics. Having created and established the myth that there is difference between the al Qaeda and ISIS, and thereby generating considerable confusion during Operation Inherent Resolve, the ISIS has now begun to concentrate on the enemy far away as well.
The objective is clear. Although there was always a convergence between the al Qaeda and ISIS, homegrown Islamist outfits that were mushrooming everywhere had to be correctly aligned as franchises. Therefore, even as the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) swore its allegiance to the ISIS, the Ansarullah Bangla team attributed its loyalty to the al Qaeda.
Therefore, even though acts such as the July 1 attack on the café in Dhaka was a handiwork of the JMB, the fact of the matter is that they had the blessings of the ISIS. How else would one explain the way the attackers were able to upload photographs from inside the café onto an ISIS-sponsored website so quickly? The mastermind of the Holey Artisan Café attack, Tamim Chowdhury, who was killed on August 27, 2016 in an ISIS safe-house in Dhaka, was an ISIS operative.
Why is the ISIS so barbaric?
The chosen weapon of execution of the ISIS is a machete. I have closely read and analysed all the 15 issues of Dabiq, the online propaganda mouthpiece of ISIS, published till date. Almost all of them show executions by a machete dripping with blood. Every act of barbarism by the ISIS is instantly "endorsed" by recourse to a shura. For instance, the burning alive of the Jordanian pilot Mu'adh Safi Yusuf al-Kasasibah is being called "equivalent response" by the ISIS.
It quotes an ayat from An-Nahl thus: "And if you punish (an enemy), punish with an equivalent of that with which you were harmed".
In other words, it says that in burning the Jordanian pilot alive and burying him under a pile of debris, the ISIS carried out a just form of retaliation for his involvement in the bombing campaign which resulted in the killing of countless Muslims who, as a result of these airstrikes, are burned alive and buried under mountains of wreckage.
The ISIS cleverly makes use of the Holy Quran to justify its ghastly acts, utilises such acts to deter other pilots and most importantly, it appeals to sick minds, people who love blood and gore.
Why did a Hindu (from Bangladesh) convert to Islam and join the ISIS? Because he probably saw endorsement from an organisation that not only holds territory, but exhibits religious sanction for its violent acts. The ISIS is not doing too well in Iraq and Syria (especially after the fall of Fallujah); therefore, it has begun to encourage "lone wolf" attacks.
The hijrah (travel to Iraq and Syria) is also becoming difficult. So through its wide social media reach it has begun to appeal to madness all over the world. It can be assured that at least 75 per cent of the people who are involving themselves in such barbaric acts all over the world, whether in Orlando, France or Bangladesh may never have ever read the Holy Quran.
They may have simply been led by the appeal to cause bloodshed. The July 1, 2016 Dhaka attack has also proven that such people are coming from affluent backgrounds as well. So let us not blame Islam for the barbarism that one is witnessing. Islam does not sanction terrorism of any kind.
What should be done to correct this? Is the government listening?
I have analysed this subject, and written and lectured on it. But there are some people in the government who think they understand the ISIS in and out. However, it is quite clear that counter-radicalisation should be the mantra, and not deradicalisation.
Many Saudi Guantanamo detainees have returned to terrorism after having been "deradicalised". There is no such thing as deradicalisation. One cannot look inside a person's brain and find out whether the ghost of radicalism has gone. Governments are sending Muslim scholars (theologicians who know how to correctly interpret the Holy Quran) to deradicalise terrorists who have never ever read the Quran! How can there be anything more stupid then this?
What about the recent arrests in Assam? Is there a Bangladesh angle to it?
The arrest of 52 JMB activists made till date in Assam were a quick, immediate and an excellent reaction by an alert special branch to nip the problem in the bud in the wake of the Burdwan blasts. Many Assamese youths from the Muslim community were wooed into joining the JMB with all sorts of propagandist ploys including that the Holy Quran is not taught properly in Assam.
Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina's bold actions against Islamist fundamentalism have led many Islamists to flee the country and enter Assam. There should be (as I have stated several times including during my recent visit to Dhaka and, of late, to Agartala) a unified security architecture for the region.
The ISIS' use of the term "Bengal" encompasses Bangladesh, West Bengal, Assam and the Rohingya belt of Myanmar. There must be no ambiguity about this. I have spoken about the need for joint cooperation in the India-Bangladesh Conclave in Agartala on August 26, 2016.
How would a joint security architecture look like?
It is for the policymakers to decide that, but I had mooted the idea of a joint liaison group and need for a joint interrogation mechanism as well as a hotline between the intelligence heads of Bangladesh and Assam. Much time is spent if everything is routed through Delhi. Real-time, actionable intelligence is the need of the hour. But one wonders whether the babus in Delhi wish such a mechanism.
Propaganda being used to influence Muslims in India. Is there an effect in Assam as well?
There is always a fear from an alien enemy that has for the first time in recent history not only secured territory. The reference is not only to the ISIS' control over territory in Iraq and Syria, but also to the Islamists from all over the world going to join the new Caliphate.
One has to, therefore, be very careful and cannot be complacent, especially as the group has made its designs regarding India quite clear. Terror in its Islamist manifestation knows no frontiers. But I am of the opinion that all right-thinking Muslims of Assam have rejected the militant manifestations of Islam, denying the ISIS and al Qaeda the storm-troopers it would require for a concerted move across the land of Srimanta Sankardeva and Pir Azan Fakir.
A policy that does not resort to racial profiling is what is required in India. Thankfully, the new dispensation in Assam seems to have understood this important point.