Publish and perish

This much is fairly obvious from the attacks on two publishers engaged in the printing and publication of literature that is reckoned to be critical of fundamentalist Islam. 

If the modus operandi of those who hacked at least three bloggers recently pointed to the hand of Islamic State, the responsibility for the targeting publishers has been claimed by the “regional division” of al-Qaeda. 

One of the publishers has succumbed to his injuries, while the other languishes in hospital. It isn’t merely the writers; the publishers are no less a target of fundamentalist fury. 

The fact that they had published the works of Avijit Roy, known for his prose against religious fundamentalism, is suggestive of malice aforethought. To suit its murderous agenda, the killers have drawn a fine distinction between publishers and writers. 

Their statement claiming responsibility is a giveaway – “The publishers are worse than the writers as they helped propagate these books and paid the blasphemers handsome amounts for writing them.” 

Verily has intolerance – now almost endemic in the subcontinent – assumed hideous proportions in Bangladesh. 

It is intolerance of the fundamentalist variety, with roots in the Arab world. It’s sad to reflect, but both the Islamist radicals and the loony fringe of India’s saffronite segment are two sides of the same repugnant coin – a fact that must be contextualised with historian Irfan Habib’s recent statement that there is little to distinguish between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from the Islamic State group. They have come to signify two brands of communal intolerance.

 

Sinister design

A sinister design is being put to devastating effect over the past few months, and Bangladesh’s Awami government’s response doesn’t match the enormity of the recurrent tragedies. Under the professedly secular regime of Begum Hasina, it has assumed mortal proportions. Shockingly enough, the government’s response has scarcely been marked by the promptitude that any civilised society would expect. 

It is a distressing thought that international terrorist groups have an organisational presence in Bangladesh, where recent developments illustrate that militants are not confined to the home-grown variety, specifically the radicals within the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami. 

Markedly, three recent statements have reaffirmed that Islamic State had carried out attacks on foreigners and Shias. The involvement of an al-Qaeda affiliate in the latest outrage has palpably made the waters murkier as have the names of secular writers on the “hit list” that has been posted by the militants on the Net. 

The government in Dhaka mustn’t just catch the killers; it must mount a robust campaign to ensure that they and their supporters are marginalised in society.