The month of March, 2005, witnessed some significant developments. UN Secretary General's five 'D's of global strategy for fighting terrorism is matched by Spanish clerics' Osama fatwa (March 10), the first over such Islamic edict against Osama bin Laden. Iraq continued to register high-intensity insurgent activity, primarily indulged in by sections of Sunnis. Terrorist activity also enveloped Doha, Beirut, Afghanistan & Pakistan. Left-wing extremists in India became very active in different States. Terrorists came to notice for increasing sophistication, such as, using websites as weapon and even mounting a full-scale internet magazine. On the other side, UK succeeded in passing a tough "Prevention of Terrorism" Bill after the longest ever sitting (30 hrs) of the House of Lords, breaking a 100 year old record. Among scientific advances in fighting terrorists was new prefabricated stainless steel guard booth, which would be both bullet and blast resistant.
For private security practitioners in India the important news was that the Government announced to pass a bill for regulating the functioning of the private security agencies, a much-awaited move, for which the IISSM has been putting in its humble efforts on behalf of the security professionals. A detailed factual account on this has been placed elsewhere in the Newsletter. The issue is hanging fire for far too long and it will require sustained efforts to take things to the logical inclusion.
D. C. Nath, IPS (Retd.)
Former Special Director, IB (MHA), Govt. of India
Editor-cum-Executive President & CEO
International Institute of Security and Safety Management
New Delhi, India
Never before has a civilian or military dignitary abroad indulged in such plain speaking on the "strong presence" of international terrorist groups in Bangladesh as Admiral William Fallon, head of the US military's pacific command visiting Dhaka on Sunday. Not only did he say that the US military had enough evidence to justify its contention that Bangladesh was home to numerous terrorist groups, but it was also a base for terrorist attacks abroad. Without mincing words, the American admiral held terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and Harkatul Jehad, responsible for large-scale smuggling of arms into Bangladesh for the purpose of spreading terror in neighbouring countries. He referred to the recent chance detection of a huge cache of arms at Chittagong and elsewhere along the Bangladesh coastline, said his government was "seriously concerned" about the ominous developments, and wanted to help Dhaka with expertise. "Current loose governance and political turmoil" in Bangladesh, has, he said, encouraged these groups to choose the country as launching pads just as Afghanistan, Indonesia and Philippines had been.
This is the first time that a top American military official has endorsed what a section of the responsible media has described as Bangladesh's "cocoon of terror." Ever since Begum Zia came to power with the help of fundamentalist Jamat-e-Islam in 2001, she as a policy, has tried to turn Bangladesh into a safe haven for Islamic terrorists. Members of Al Qaeda on the run from Afghanistan are provided refuge as are terrorists like, for instance, from Al Harmine. They are allowed to slip in and out of the country at will. Some terrorists work under the garb of Islamic NGOs whose number is rising steeply. Significantly, Admiral Fallon's statement came a day after the chief ministers of West Bengal and Assam at conference on national security in Delhi, had iterated the threat that the camps run in Bangladesh by ULFA, KLO and Bodo insurgents pose for their states' security. Khaleda Zia's government is not only helping in the running of these camps but is sending insurgents and Islamic militants across. In fact her government has unleashed a religious propaganda war in the bordering Indian districts by dumping thousands of CDs and cassettes containing highly communal preachings of a Jamat MP, Delwar Hossain Saidi, who has declared a "jihad" against "Indian secularism". It is no coincidence that expressions of concern by Fallon and the Indian chief ministers are identical. They have put Begum Zia's government under a scanner and know exactly what they are talking about.
