US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday arrived in Bangladesh to offer help as the government confronts growing extremism that has resulted in deadly attacks against locals and foreigners and raised concerns the Islamic State is putting down roots in the country.
In meetings with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and others during the one-day visit, Kerry might present new military and law-enforcement support. He was also to meet opposition leaders who argue the government has used the extremist threat to crack down on political opponents.
Hasina’s government is seeking to project an image of order in the weeks since five attackers killed 22 people, mostly foreigners, at a cafe in the capital, Dhaka. Globe-trotting Kerry has never visited Bangladesh, and his decision to stop there reflects how the attacks have sharpened US focus on the predominantly Muslim country as a potential Islamic State breeding ground.
Photo: AFP
“The Dhaka attack did create a strong impression for many in the US and elsewhere that if left to fester, ISIS will plant roots in South Asia,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, referring to the Islamic State by one of its many acronyms.
The US and Bangladesh have long-standing counterterrorism and security programs, and their dialogue has intensified in recent months, a senior US Department of State official told reporters.
The official said Kerry would speak to Bangladeshi leaders to see what more the US can do to bolster that relationship.
The official asked not to be identified, citing government policy.
The Dhaka attack, which the assailants broadcast on the Internet and was later claimed by the Islamic State, spooked investors who have helped make Bangladesh the world’s second-largest garment manufacturer behind China. That has raised fears that annual growth, projected to be more than 6 percent this year, might falter.
The US wants to ensure the group does not expand its network outside the Middle East to places such as Bangladesh as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria.
Police also continue to investigate the disappearance of dozens of young men feared to have been radicalized by the Islamic State. Some of the men who staged the attack on the cafe grew up in wealthy families and had shown no signs of extremism before the attack. Five of six of them were killed in the standoff that followed.
In a video released days after the attack, the Islamic State promised more assaults.
“This will repeat, repeat and repeat until you lose and we win,” a man says in the video.
The group has claimed responsibility for several other incidents in Bangladesh.
While officials acknowledge Muslim extremist groups in Bangladesh might have links to outsiders, the government denies that the Islamic State is operating there on its own.
Instead, it says the extremism is largely homegrown and has been fomented by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Hasina’s government points to a wave of killings that targeted about 40 secular and moderate bloggers, as well as others, as further evidence of the opposition’s agenda.
The opposition denies the claim and says Hasina’s government is using the fear of extremism to harass or limit its supporters as part of a campaign that has included thousands of arrests.
Kerry was also to meet with opposition leader Khaleda Zia, who led a boycott of parliamentary elections in 2014.
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