How the Islamist surge in Bangladesh is a threat to India too
A disturbing layer to this emerging ecosystem is the role of sympathetic media figures. A journalist affiliated with a popular Bangla daily has been named in the report as a key propagandist and enabler of Ijhar's network. This person, closely associated with the daily's editor and a Bangladeshi ideologue, has allegedly worked to suppress coverage of Islamist violence in mainstream media. He also collaborates with controversial YouTuber Elias Hossain to craft misleading narratives that portray Bangladesh as free from extremism—despite mounting evidence to the contrary.The intelligence report identifies 15 individuals embedded in various professional domains such as healthcare, academia, digital content creation and religious education, who are operating as covert recruiters and propagandists for Hizb ut-Tahrir and Islamic State affiliates. Recruits are often drawn from elite institutions, including the Bangladesh University of Engineering and technology (BUET) and private universities, where they are groomed to act as 'sleeper agents' and 'ideological multipliers'.The report outlines three competing but overlapping hypotheses regarding the motivations of these networks. The first posits that the extremists are deliberately fomenting chaos in order to delay or disrupt the upcoming election and create conditions favourable for a covert military or ideological takeover. The second suggests these groups may be acting at the behest of a powerful interest group—possibly with foreign links—that seeks to prevent the election from taking place on time, thereby preserving a transitional status quo favourable to their strategic interests. The third, longer-term strategy appears to involve weakening the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) through a sustained campaign of propaganda and intimidation.advertisementBy reducing the BNP's projected seat count and rendering it incapable of forming a stable government, Islamist factions hope to gain parliamentary leverage—particularly under the Yunus government's proposed reforms that grant more power to the opposition. Over time, this could pave the way for an incremental Islamist capture of Bangladesh's political system through legal and electoral mechanisms.India, which shares a porous 4,096-km border with Bangladesh, has taken note of these developments with deep concern. The resurgence of Islamist extremism in a neighbouring state carries immediate implications for border security, communal harmony in West Bengal and Assam, and cross-border terrorism. The use of digital platforms to radicalise individuals in Bangladesh could easily be replicated across the border, especially in vulnerable minority-dense districts. Indian intelligence officials have already red-flagged signs of ideological spillover and potential infiltration routes being tested along the border.Amid these threats, the response from the interim Yunus government has been notably restrained. Despite repeated red flags raised by national and foreign security agencies, key figures with open links to internationally proscribed organisations are operating with near impunity. Public seminars, inflammatory sermons and strategic recruitment drives have continued unabated. While Yunus has publicly committed to holding free and fair elections in April 2026, his administration's reluctance to crack down on rising extremism has raised serious questions about its priorities and political calculations. Some analysts believe the leniency stems from an unwillingness to alienate powerful religious groups or stir controversy ahead of elections. Others fear that parts of the interim establishment may view the Islamists as a counterweight to both the Awami League and the BNP.advertisementThe joint intelligence report concludes with a warning that unless urgent and coordinated action is taken—both by Dhaka and its regional partners—the Islamist resurgence could reverse years of progress in secular governance and democratic institution-building in Bangladesh. For India, the report serves as a stark reminder that the next phase of regional instability may not arise from across its western frontier—but from its east.Subscribe to India Today Magazineadvertisement
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Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Before Operation Sindoor, there was Operation Maa. Its lessons must be remembered
Written by Rajesh Kalia Traditional counter-terrorism operations often prioritise the neutralisation of terrorists as the primary metric of success. However, here I would like to present a compelling case for a paradigm shift, arguing that a long-term solution to terrorism requires a strategy that addresses its root causes and prevents radicalisation at its source. Drawing on the Indian Army's 'Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove' policy in the Kashmir Valley, let us examine a unique counter-insurgency operation that focused on 'mind space management'. An important study shows that an understanding of local culture and religious traditions, combined with a direct appeal to the revered status of mothers, led to a significant number of young men abandoning terrorism and returning to the mainstream. While the role of security forces in defending national sovereignty is indisputable, a purely kinetic approach fails to address the underlying ideological and social factors that drive youth to join terror ranks. The adage, 'soldiers fight terrorists, the state fights terrorism,' underscores this distinction. Let us examine an innovative approach employed in the Kashmir Valley, where the Indian Army launched a counter-terrorist operation focused on mind space management, using a message as its primary weapon. This strategy, implemented before major operations like Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev, sought to 'win the hearts and minds' (WHAM) of the local population. The foundation of this operation was the intelligent use of knowledge from ancient texts. Initially, a message based on a Sanskrit verse by Lord Ram — 'Lakshman, even this golden Lanka does not appeal to me. Mother and motherland are superior even to heaven' – was considered. This reflects a universal value that homeland and family are superior to material wealth. However, concerns arose regarding its potential reception in a predominantly Muslim region. A crucial pivot was made after a collaboration with Sumir Kaul from the Press Trust of India and several Islamic scholars. Research into Islamic teachings revealed the exalted status of the mother. A specific Hadith states, 'Do good to and serve your mother, then your mother, then your mother and then your father'. It highlights that a mother is to be shown kindness and good treatment three times more than the father. This noble thought became the ideological cornerstone of Operation Maa (Mother). The methodology of Operation Maa involved a multi-pronged outreach programme. The armed forces interacted with religious teachers and village elders to disseminate the message of peace and direct appeals were made to parents. This was done specifically with mothers to leverage their revered status in society and appeal to them to discourage their children from joining terrorist groups. In a display of respect for human rights, the Indian Army would, on occasion, halt ongoing encounters to bring families to the site, allowing mothers to directly appeal to their sons to surrender. A study conducted by the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps in mid-2019 provided critical data to support this non-kinetic strategy. The study analysed the lifespan of terrorists and found a compelling correlation: A significant percentage of neutralised terrorists had a history of being stone-pelters. The lifespan of a newly inducted terrorist was remarkably short: 7 per cent were neutralised within 10 days, 9 per cent within a month, 17 per cent within three months and a staggering 64 per cent were eliminated within one year of joining. These findings were made public to highlight the dangers and futility of terrorism, serving as a powerful deterrent. This data, combined with the successful execution of Operation Maa, demonstrated that a significant number of young men, under the influence of their mothers' appeals, chose to drop their weapons and return to the mainstream. This validates the 'iron fist in a velvet glove' policy, which posits that military force must be used against those who threaten the state, while a compassionate approach is reserved for those willing to renounce violence. The success of Operation Maa demonstrates that a holistic counter-terrorism strategy must extend beyond the battlefield. While security forces must be effective in combat, they also need a reasonable knowledge of the local culture and traditions, irrespective of their personal beliefs. This understanding allows for the creation of messages that resonate deeply with the target audience. The strategic use of a Hadith in a Muslim-majority region was far more effective than a Sanskrit message, as it directly appealed to a deeply held religious and cultural value. The implications of this strategy are profound for counter insurgency doctrine globally and suggests that success should not be limited to the number of terrorists eliminated, but should also include the number of youth prevented from joining terrorist ranks. Security forces must be trained in cultural sensitivity and local traditions to build trust and credibility. The family unit, particularly mothers, can be a powerful force for de-radicalisation. The Kashmir Valley operation exemplifies a nuanced and effective counter-terrorism model. By blending military might with a culturally informed and empathetic approach, the Indian Army demonstrated that the most significant battles are often won not with bullets, but with a profound understanding of the human heart and mind. By blending operational strength with a deep respect for cultural values, the Indian Army is not just fighting a war against terror; it is fighting to secure a future of peace, one heart and mind at a time. The writer is a former defence spokesman in Srinagar and a retired Indian Army officer
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Let students dream
A senior assistant editor with the Times of India, Mohammed Wajihuddin writes about Muslims, their issues, hopes and aspirations. Committed to upholding inclusiveness, communal amity and freedom to dissent and debate, he endeavours to promote peaceful existence. A passionate reader of Islam, he endeavours to save the faith from the clutches of the jihadists. An ardent lover of Urdu poetry, he believes words are the best weapons to fight jingoism. LESS ... MORE Students of AMU have called off their three-week strike, and those on a hunger strike ended it after VC Prof Naeema Khatun promised the students' union election in December. The demand to reduce the hiked fees has also been accepted. Khatun offered a glass of juice to the students on a hunger strike. This is neither the first time a VC visited the dharna spot and persuaded students to end the hunger strike by offering a glass of juice. Nor will it be the last. In its history of over a century, AMU has seen such situations several times. But one incident during the tenure of Dr Zakir Hussain as AMU's VC has gone down in the varsity's folklore. Former AMU Students' Union President and founder of Iqra International Educational Foundation Dr Abidullah Ghazi (1936-2021) did M A in Political Science from AMU–former Vice-president M Hamid Ansari was his classmate in the 1960s. Abidullah came from a family of noted Islamic scholars and freedom fighters. It was his great-grandfather, Abdullah Ansari, whom Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, AMU's founder, invited to set up the Sunni Theology Department at Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College. MAO College metamorphosed into AMU in 1920. Ansari also led the funeral prayer of Sir Syed in 1898. Abidullah Ghazi, in his Urdu autobiography 'Jahad-e-Musalsal: Aligarh Se Aligarh Tak,' recalls an interesting incident from his student days on the AMU campus. During his tenure as AMU's VC, Zakir Husain reduced the Muharram holidays, enraging Shia students. One student leader named Jaffer Mehdi Tabaan sat on a hunger strike to protest this decision. The Students' union meeting, attended by both Shia and Sunni students, decided to show solidarity with Tabaan as his condition worsened. Interestingly, even Zakir Sahab attended this meeting. Student leader Saeed Anda (Egg), who was notorious for coining colourful terms and slogans, gave a fiery speech in which he used a line that became memorable: 'Afsos hai ke is Jamia mein Zakir Hussain Zikre Hussain ko mana karta hai (It is regrettable that in this university a Zakir Husain is stopping pupils from commemorating Hussain).' In Muharram, especially in the initial 10 days, Shias intensely mourn the martyrdom of the Prophet's grandson Imam Hussain at Karbala (Iraq), and Zakir Sahab had substantially reduced the holidays for this commemoration. His argument was that the students should commemorate Hussain's martyrdom by attending classes. After giving a good speech on the life of Imam Hussain, Zakir Sahab went to meet the student who was on a hunger strike. He admired Tabaan's spirit and persuaded him to end the strike by offering him a glass of juice. That was Zakir Sahab, whom PM Pandit Nehru and education minister Maulana Azad had sent to Aligarh to save it from the stormy winds which threatened it in the aftermath of the partition. Zakir Sahab injected hope, confidence among the AMU community and saved the chaman of Sir Syed, which faced an existential crisis. Another interesting anecdote from Zakir Sahab's time as AMU's VC is that once a student delegation went to meet him with a complaint. The sherwani of one of the students in the delegation was unbuttoned. Zakir Sahab stood up from his chair, came closer to the student and spoke to him softly while buttoning his Sherwani. Such small gestures won the hearts of the students. To a VC, students are like his or her children. Youth is the time when we humans want to change the world. Blessed with boundless energy, many of the youth become idealists. This is a phase when they dream, create, experiment, commit mistakes and also disrupt the most. Let the students dream, create and commit mistakes. Post-script: I just saw a video clip of a student who was on a hunger strike. He claims he was offered juice by the VC. He took a sip but did not gulp it. He says the boys and girls who were on strike are not happy with the notice they received after the strike was called off. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
The Print
4 hours ago
- The Print
Trump govt considering ban on Muslim Brotherhood—Is the West's romance with Islamism over?
Last week, almost no one noticed when Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was considering a ban on the Muslim Brotherhood, describing them as 'a grave concern'. The Islamist organisation has long been proscribed in Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and most recently , in Jordan. Then, in 2003, a police search at Heathrow Airport found $340,000 packed in his hand baggage—a little over three kilos of neat, new $100 bills. Libya had paid the money to assassinate then-Saudi crown prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Alamoudi would admit at trial . Further investigation revealed the AMC was routing funds to Hamas and Hezbollah, the FBI said. For a time, Abdurahman Alamoudi flew with the angels , flitting across the landscape of the most powerful city on earth: Friend to America's most powerful, he served as Goodwill Ambassador for American Muslims for the State Department, and his American Muslim Council or AMC was described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as 'the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States'. Together with President George Bush, he had mourned the victims of 9/11 at the Washington National Cathedral. Later, he opened the door for an Imam to read the opening invocation for a session of Congress. The Brotherhood, though, is also a critical ally of the nation which just donated President Donald Trump a Boeing 747, and has deep business ties to his family. For decades, Qatar has used the Brotherhood as a means to project influence across the Middle East, even providing Hamas with its headquarters and funding. Trump had promised to ban the Brotherhood in 2019, but the plan disappeared into the sands. For Trump, acting against the Brotherhood could offer a small, but politically significant prize: A weapon to smear the pro-Palestine organisations criticising his Israel policies, and rally his core White nationalist supporters around Islamophobia. The consequences of a ban, however, will stretch across the world, dramatically impacting the Islamist political landscape. The Global Brotherhood The Muslim Brotherhood was set up in 1928 by schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, as the anti-colonial movement began to gather in Egypt. Frustrated at the religious establishment's failure to resist cultural Westernisation in cities like Cairo, al-Banna preached for religious revival in coffee shops, small mosques, and on the streets. Egypt's liberation, he insisted, could be brought about only by building a society based on the Sharia—not imports like liberalism or socialism. Foreign students studying in Cairo carried the message across the Islamic world, historian Lorenzo Vidino writes. From 1940 to 1944, as the Second World War raged, British diplomats sought to buy off the Brotherhood. Scholar James Heyworth-Dunne wrote in 1950 that al-Banna offered to end anti-British mobilisation in exchange for $40,000 and a car. The talks went nowhere. According to scholar Martyn Frampton, the Middle East Intelligence Committee identified Brotherhood operatives in Sudan, Algeria, Amman, Beirut, Aleppo, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and India in 1941. Even as the Brotherhood's special squads began using terrorism to eliminate their rivals, al-Banna reached out to diplomats from the United Kingdom and the United States, proposing a joint front against Communism. The relationship, however, proved unsustainable. In 1947, Brotherhood member Rifat Abd al-Rahman al-Naggar, an Air Force officer, bombed the King George Hotel in Ismailia. The assassination of Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi led Egypt to ban the Brotherhood, while al-Banna himself was murdered by secret police agents in February 1949. The Egyptian revolution of 1952, which brought President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Free Officers movement to power, was greeted with joy by the Brotherhood. The Islamists had fought together with the Free Officers in Gaza against Israel and helped plot the downfall of King Farouk bin Ahmed Fuad's monarchy. The Brotherhood's insistence on Sharia, though, rapidly alienated them from Nasser, and the movement was crushed. Far from home, though, the Brotherhood found supporters willing to offer it refuge and resources. Al-Banna's successor, Sayyid Qutb, who studied in the US on a fellowship, returned repelled by the relative sexual freedoms of American women, and jazz, which he described as the music of 'savage Bushmen'. Egyptian Islamist leader Said Ramadan travelled with a delegation of anti-Communist clerics to meet with US President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. The following year, he was granted asylum in Germany. Following this, French journalist Caroline Fourest has written that Ramadan emerged in Pakistan. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan wrote the preface to one of Ramadan's books and gave him a slot on national radio. Ensconced in Karachi, Ramadan also became close to Abul A'la Maududi, who had founded the Brotherhood's Indian wing, the Jamaat-e-Islami. Large parts of Maududi's work, interestingly, are reproduced verbatim in Brotherhood literature. According to Framton, al-Banna himself wrote to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, describing the accession of Hyderabad and Kashmir to India as an occupation of Islamic lands. Even as these events unfolded, Western intelligence services had begun rebuilding their contacts with the Brotherhood, journalist Ian Johnson revealed. The US and the UK had already started recruiting the remnants of the Muslim legion, hoping to use them against the Soviet Union. Also read: India's amphibious operations depend on contingencies. Can the Armed Forces adapt? The Brotherhood in America Later, some commentators would charge the Brotherhood with deception, arguing that it claimed to represent moderation while maintaining ties with jihadist terror. This, in Alamoudi's case, is demonstrably untrue. He publicly supported Hamas and Hezbollah, and demanded the release of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric jailed for plotting to blow up New York landmarks. In one phone call intercepted by the FBI, he claimed al-Qaeda's 1998 bombings in East Africa were wrong, but only because 'many African Muslims have died and not a single American died'. Yet, for reasons that have never been explained, Alamoudi worked with the Defence Department to recruit Imams to meet the religious needs of Muslims in the United States military. President George Bush, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Senator Cynthia McKinney all accepted campaign donations from Alamoudi. This, even though the AMC represented no significant group of Muslims. Foundations for enmeshing well-funded Brotherhood front-organisations across the West were laid decades before Alamoudi and the AMC emerged. Khurshid Ahmad, among Maududi's earliest followers—and later Senator, and Minister of Planning under General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's regime—was assigned the task of propagating the Brotherhood's message in the West around 1968, Vidino records. Living in the UK, Khurshid and his colleagues from the Brotherhood began receiving funds from Saudi Arabia in 1973. This would flower into the Islamic Council of Europe (ICE), which operated from London's posh Belgravia neighbourhood. In 1977, at a conference in Lugano, Khurshid and other ICE leaders set up the Brotherhood's first operation in the US, the International Institute of Islamic Thought. From at least 1991, the Brotherhood had an informal manifesto guiding its operations in the US, advocating for creating networks of decentralised organisations. These efforts were driving a less genteel story, too. Like generations of jihadists, the young fighters who thronged to Pakistan to combat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan were drawn in by the Brotherhood's words and networks. Jihadist Abdullah Azzam, scholar Thomas Hegghammer has written, not only laid the foundations for Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda, but also for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Also read: Washington must respect New Delhi's redlines. And repair India-US strained ties The best of enemies Following 9/11, Western diplomatic and intelligence services severed all contact with the Brotherhood. But the stand-off was not to last long. In 2006, journalist Martin Bright revealed that the UK's foreign office was considering reopening ties with figures it described as 'moderate Islamists'. The British government paid for Brotherhood ideologue Yusuf al-Qaradawi to attend a conference in Turkey, and funded two Islamist youth organisations at home, the Federation of Islamic Student Societies and Young Muslim Organisation. This process gathered momentum in the coming years, as the UK concluded that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable. In 2011, the Foreign Office paid for Taliban leader Abdul Salaam Zaeef to attend a conference in London, and he was then privately hosted for a hunting vacation in Scotland. Leaked diplomatic correspondence reveals, Frampton and Ehud Rosen write, that American authorities were more hawkish in their public statements on the Brotherhood. Simultaneously, they intensified efforts to identify so-called moderates who would reject violence and thus hollow out the jihadist threat from within. The Brotherhood also proved a key ally in the long struggle to dethrone the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The Alamoudi case wasn't the only one to show the perils of that path. The prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation—alleged to have channelled millions of dollars to Hamas—threw up disturbing evidence of connivance by linked organisations named as unindicted coconspirators: the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the North American Islamic Trust. The case collapsed in 2007, but documents released during the trial established deep links between these networks and the Brotherhood, Zeyno Baran notes. Across the Middle East, the Brotherhood's significance has appeared to wane, as new jihadist groups like the Islamic State have emerged, and the threat from al-Qaeda to the West has diminished. The ideas of the Brotherhood and its networks, however, continue to provide the bedrock for Islamist movements across the world, holding up a vast and complex system of ideological persuasion and fundraising. Banning the Brotherhood, as well as sister organisations like the Jamaat-e-Islami, won't end terrorism. To misuse the issue to smear Muslim communities as a whole—a real danger under Trump—holds out the threat of alienating millions of believers at least as hostile to terrorism as the rest of their nations. The decision will, however, signal the end of a toxic romance between Islamism and the West, and make clear that ideologies propagating hate and violence cannot be tolerated in democracies. Praveen Swami is contributing editor at ThePrint. His X handle is @praveenswami. Views are personal. (Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
