Ansarullah Bangla Team: A Major Threat for Bangladesh’s Democracy

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Abstract

"Since 9/11, the world has considered Pakistan and Afghanistan as the epicentre of Islamic fundamentalism in South Asia, incarnated in the Taliban movement and its affiliates. Many of the early observations dealt with the tremendous challenge which terrorism and religious-militant extremism would pose to peace and stability (from a geopolitical perspective). Realising the increasingly complex scenarios as well as the causalities and impacts, analyses on the phenomenon under discussion were slowly but persistently broadening. In order to be able to address not only the militant, but also the socio-economic and political dimensions of Islamic fundamentalism, the networks and ideological foundations of internationally acting fundamentalist groups have increasingly caught the attention of observers (worldwide). Despite a general widening of the research focus (for example taking gender aspects into account, like suicide bombing by female terrorists), it has also led to the phenomenon of only seeing certain aspects and/or dimensions of Islamic fundamentalism. By being pre-occupied with the security aspects of the Islamist challenge in the context of the foreign intervention in Afghanistan, many analysts initially had a narrow focus on the ‘AfPak’ region. Consequently, fundamentalist developments in other parts of the Indian subcontinent, especially in Bangladesh, were not adequately recognized for a long time. (...)."