Dhaka: Bangladesh's top counter intelligence agency had extended its support to banned terror group HuJI to enter the political arena in a bid to make it join mainstream politics, according to secret US cables
released by WikiLeaks.
"Bangladesh's Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) supported the formation of the IDP (Islamic Democratic Party) as a way to bring HUJI-B (banned Harkatul Jihad Bangladesh) into the mainstream politics," Wikileaks CableGate reported in an item provided to the internet on December 4.
The private Bdnews24 news agency today carried a detail report on the Wikileaks report from London saying that according to the cables sent by the US embassy in Dhaka, DGFI made the attempt to float Islamic Democratic Party right before the December 2008 general elections in Bangladesh.
The diplomatic cable, however, also acknowledged that the country's main National Security Intelligence (NSI) aired concern in a late-September assessment that IDP's creation would free extremists to pursue extremist activity under the cover of a moderate front organisation.
According to the report the US embassy too had strongly opposed the creation of the IDP, fearing that the party might respond with violence possibly against US mission or interests.
The embassy, it said, believed HUJI-B was pursuing the
creation of a political wing to improve its ability to support
and carry out terrorist activity.
Several HuJI leaders including Maulana Abdus Salam
floated IDP in 2008 renaming outlawed HuJI, calling for
interfaith harmony and claiming its disassociation with HuJI
for over one decade.
Bangladesh was under military-backed emergency rules
with an interim civil administration in office at that time
when media reports said the authorities had ordered an
intensified security vigil against newly emerged IDP.
IDP had announced its emergence at a function in
Dhaka inviting as guests a controversial pro-Israel campaigner
and three community leaders representing the Hindu, Buddhist
and Christian faiths visibly to show their new organisation?s
respect for interfaith beliefs.
"We are allowing it (IDP) to operate IDP as an open
party despite the controversial and suspicious past of their
leaders so we can keep a watch on them .
If you send everyone to underground, it would be
difficult to keep the vigil," a senior security official told
at that time.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, December 18, 2010, 00:28