Fear is running high following months in which four bloggers and three other people have been killed, allegedly by Islamist radicals. Authorities blame the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its main Islamist ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, saying they want to destabilize the country ahead of executions, expected late this year, of two influential politicians from the two parties for war crimes. The parties deny involvement in the killings, saying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government is pushing hard-liners to strike back by cracking down on its opponents. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility, but authorities deny that the Sunni extremist group has any presence in the South Asian country. Pial often appears in television talk shows and stands against radical religious ideologies, war criminals and the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which he says should be banned for extremism and its stand against the country's independence. Bangladesh broke off from Pakistan in 1971, after two decades of nationalist movement turned into an armed conflict between Pakistani soldiers and Bengali-speaking people who wanted a separate state. Jamaat-e-Islami campaigned against Bangladesh's independence and formed militia groups to aid Pakistani soldiers who committed genocide. Hasina and her Awami League party campaigned on the issue before the 2008 election, promising to bring suspected war criminals to justice. In February 2013, after a tribunal sentenced a senior Jamaat-e-Islami official to life in prison for war crimes, bloggers helped organize weeks-long protests across the country demanding his execution. At one point I discovered that police told my landlord to ask me to leave his home. Because if I stay in that area, the police need to take some extra responsibility. While the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the recent killings, authorities are focusing on local militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team, which claimed responsibility for the previous killings of bloggers. [...] they went away when our security guard talked to my sister upstairs by phone, Khan said.
Bangladesh Bloggers Fear Deadly Backlash Won't End Soon
World News From SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle: World
Thu, 11/12/2015 - 11:56pm
Topics: authorities bangladesh nationalist party islamist prime minister sheikh hasina the islamic state south asian pial pakistani bengali-speaking awami league in february ansarullah bangla team khan i bangladesh at jamaat-e-islami hasina islamic state pakistan bloggers fear war country group people deny
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