ISLAMIC EXTREMIST GROUP CALLING FOR JIHAD SURFACES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000357

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT PASS TO SCA/PB, S/CT
USAID FOR ANE AND CMM, A COURTNEY AND C RUNYAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2018
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL BG
SUBJECT: ISLAMIC EXTREMIST GROUP CALLING FOR JIHAD SURFACES
IN SOUTHERN BANGLADESH

REF: STATE 20648

Classified By: CDA a.i. Geeta Pasi. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: A district police superintendent in southern
Bangladesh says he has barred activities of a legal Islamic
extremist group that advocates the primacy of jihad, which it
describes as armed struggle that is required of all true
Muslims. Although the police chief said the group's presence
in Patuakhali District was negligible, he not only banned it
from distributing propaganda but urged local imams to speak
out against its teachings. He also plans to stage a rally in
the coming weeks to urge vigilance against extremism. His
multifaceted offensive suggests a concern among at least some
law enforcement officials that the presence of even small
extremist groups poses a potential threat in this moderate
Muslim-majority nation. Embassy Dhaka believes USG programs
that support community policing will help law enforcement
officials keep such threats at bay. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Hijbut Touhid (other spellings include Hizbut
Touhid) is an extremist group founded by Mohammad Bayazid
Khan Panni, an imam from Tangail in central Bangladesh who
says jihad armed struggle is required of all true believers
of Islam. The group is believed to have no more than 5,000
supporters and just a few hundred activists among
Bangladesh's 150 million people, according to Mohammad
Aurangzeb Mohbub, a top official with the Special Branch of
Bangladesh Police. It remains legal because it has not
commited violent acts. Still, a survey by the Bangladesh
Enterprise Institute (BEI) think tank found that the number
of Hijbut Touhid members reported arrested from August 2007
to January 2008 was 45, much more than other Islamic
extremist groups, including the outlawed Jamaatul-Mujahedin
Bangladesh (JMB) that was behind a notorious nationwide
bombing campaign in 2005. Typically, Hijbut Touhid members
are arrested for spreading jihadi ideology through speeches
and for trying to organize street processions, which violate
emergency rules in effect under the current Caretaker
Government, according to Ambassador M. Shafiullah, a
militancy expert at BEI.

3.(SBU) The Daily Star, Bangladesh's leading English-language
newspaper, reported in January that Hijbut Touhid had set up
a camp in the southern district of Patuakhali and was
distributing books and pamphlets propagating Islamist
militancy among villagers. One Hijbut Touhid pamphlet
obtained by EmbOffs from local police during a visit to
Patuakhali in February repeatedly glorified jihad. "After
being defeated, insulted, despised and hated by other
nations, it has become necessary for this (Muslim) nation of
1.5 billion people to understand clearly that Allah will
punish us severely and then will choose another nation in our
place if we shun jihad," it said. Among the books published
by the founder, the pamphlet said, are "This Islam is Not at
all Islam" and "Demon? The Jewish-Christian Civilization."


4. (SBU) Although the Daily Star newspaper reported that
local police allowed the group to organize because it was not
officially banned, Patuakhali Superintendent of Police
Mohammad Ashrafur Rahman a few weeks later told an
interagency Cyclone Sidr assessment team that he had
instructed his officers to stop all Hijbut Touhid activity.
"I banned this in my area," he told PolOff during a follow-up
phone call on March 17.


5. (SBU) Rahman estimated no more than 10-15 Hijbut Touhid
activists in his region, an amount he described as
"negligible." He said the group managed to circulate only a
"very few" pamphlets in Patuakhali before he cracked down.
The police chief has urged local imams not to accept the
extremists' propaganda material. "I said the imams should
speak to the people against this group," he said. Rahman also
is planning to hold what he described as a rally in April to
spread the anti-extremist message to a larger audience.


6. (C) Comment: Although Hijbut Touhid is not illegal, it is
often likened to a nascent JMB, which began as a small
militant Islamist organization but quickly expanded in scope
to coordinate a national wave of near simultaneous bombings
in 2005. Rahman's action suggests a realization among at

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least some law enforcement officials that even small, legal
groups must be monitored carefully to ensure they don't
mestatasize into larger, virulently violent organizations.
"There is sufficient fertile ground in Bangladesh for jihadi
ideology," says Ambassador Shafiullah, noting the country's
high unemployment rate and fluid political situation. Embassy
Dhaka plans to submit an interagency proposal for 1210
funding (reftel) to support community policing in Bangladesh
that will help officers such as Rahman respond forcefully
against extremism whenever it appears. Meanwhile, a
Department of Defense Information Support Team at the Embassy
is developing a program for the Government of Bangladesh that
would allow citizens to provide tips to law enforcement
officials about suspected extremist activity.
Pasi