Pre-poll violence in Dhaka, ISI involvement suspected

Pakistani ISI-backed BNP and banned outfit Jamaat-e-Islami this week initiated pre-poll violence in Dhaka bringing back memories of 2014-15 when the two parties resorted to mass killing and arson creating public panic and disrupting normal life in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh authorities told ET from Dhaka that the attack was premeditated in the run-up to Parliamentary elections on December 30. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has alleged that the BNP is hatching a conspiracy to foil Parliamentary elections despite Opposition forces deciding to contest polls. “I would like to tell them that they should try to cooperate [with the Election Commission] in holding the election, not hatch conspiracies to foil the polls as they [BNP] decided to join the election,” she said at a party meeting in Dhaka this week. Hasina expressed hope that the people of Bangladesh would re-elect the Awami League as her party had undertaken massive development works in the last 10 years. India is keeping a close watch on the BNP-Jamaat sponsored violence as Bangladesh is among Delhi’s closest security and economic partners over the past decade under Hasina. Instability, encouraged by BNP-Jamaat, creates opportunities for Pak ISI to fan anti-India activities, sources here alleged.

The worry also stems from the fact that BNP-Jamaat wants to create circumstances that could lead to a non-democratic government taking power in Dhaka, sources said. Jamaat, charged with sponsoring terror with links to Pak-based terror groups, has been barred from contesting polls.