[Reader-list] Suicide Bombers: Now You See Them, Now You Don't

[NAEEM MOHAIEMEN]

The mystery around Dec 13 attack on Indian Parliament
(ref: Shuddha's post about the new Dec 13 Reader)
reminds me of the equally mysterious, shady and funky
series of "suicide bombings" in Bangladesh in 2005.

One moment, there were simultaneous bomb blasts all
over the country (w/ a level of coordination difficult
w/o involvement of gov't or renegade faction w/i
gov't), men were carrying out suicide attacks on
bicyles (Bangla style, no cars for us), FBI, Interpol,
MI 6 were sending "special teams" to investigate,
Indian think tanks were invoking themselves as like an
"Israel surrounded by hostile Muslim neighbors", books
with titles like "Bangladesh: The Next Afghanistan"
were getting rushed to print.

And then, just like that, it was over, khattham.
Militant cell busted, all leaders arrestes (always
with 6 camera crews on the spot to catch best shows),
glowing Time magazine cover (showing the Home
Minister––named "Luggage Babar" for his past corrupt
exploits–– as some sort of Sherlockized James Bond),
hosannas, and now full steam ahead to elections.

And of course total coincidence that arrests cast the
paramilitary goon squad of RAB (Rapid Action
Batallion) as heros, even though Human Rights Watch is
about to release a damning report on the practice of
hundreds of extra-judicial killings by RAB under the
"crossfire" label.

All the puppet masters caught.

Right?

errm....



Not much has been written about the strange twists and
turns in the Suicide Bombing cases (we need a reader
on this subject), but for now here is some background
context (not all directly relevant, but exploring
tangents as well):

Rush To Execute (blog entry)
http://drishtipat.org/blog/2006/11/29/rush-to-execute/

Josh Tones & Suicide Bombers (old essay written right
after the bombings)
http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/12/29/d512291502106.htm

Bangladesh Shining (a dissection of the TIME magazine
story)
http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/04/07/d60407020331.htm

There You Go Again
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2005/12/29/there-you-go-again/

Who Holds The Key?
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/wp-content/so_what_do_we_do.pdf

Chronology
http://stopviolence.drishtipat.org/violencehistory.htm


 
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