{UAH} ISRAEL BEHIND DAILY BANGLA DESH MURDERS- CLAIMS GOVERNMENT MINISTER

Dr Paul Mugerwa,

Regarding the daily murders being carried out almost daily by
Islamists on secularists and religious minorities, here the Bangla
Desh government claims it is in fact the Israeli MOSSAD carrying out
the murders, even though ISIS and local Islamist groups have claimed
responsibility for most of the killings. Rehema once claimed that
Muslims can live in peace with christians and other religious
minorities. I told her that is true, but only in countries where
muslims are a minority, such as the UK. In countries where muslims are
a majority, like Bangla Desh, other religious minorities face severe
oppression and, as in the case of Bangla Desh, Iraq and Syria, they
face almost total annihilation.

Bobby

Bobby


Bangladesh home minister suggests Israel behind spate of killings
6 June 2016

Regular protests have been held following the attacks
Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has suggested an Israeli
link to the recent killings of secular bloggers and minorities.

He said an opposition politician had met an Israeli intelligence agent
and there was evidence of an "international conspiracy" against
Bangladesh.

He gave no more evidence. Israel says the claim is nonsense.

Critics say the government is in denial about the killings, most of
which have been blamed on or claimed by Islamists.

Mr Khan's comments come a day after the wife of a senior police
officer investigating the deaths was shot dead.

The governing Awami League has sought in the past to link the
opposition to the attacks. Relations with the opposition Bangladesh
National Party (BNP) remain fraught following the disputed 2014
general election.

Muslim-majority but officially secular Bangladesh has no diplomatic
relations with Israel and supports the Palestinians.


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Analysis: Waliur Rahman, BBC Bengali editor in Dhaka
Any vilification of Israel will certainly please the vast number of
Bangladeshis who support the cause of the Palestinians and bring some
political dividends for any Bangladeshi party.

But the government is facing critical questions internationally,
especially about the investigation into the series of killings.

Only one murder has so far come to trial.

While the government sees a conspiracy to block the country's
advancement, Islamist groups continue to grow in strength and strike
almost routinely at one of the state's basic tenets - secularism.

Who is behind the Bangladesh killings?

Is extremism on the rise in Bangladesh?

Lurching from secularism to sectarian terror?


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"Bangladesh has become the target of an international conspiracy. And
a foreign intelligence agency has joined the conspiracy," Mr Khan
said.

When asked to elaborate, he said: "You must have noticed that an
Israeli intelligence agent had a meeting with a politician, it does
not need to be verified further, all Bangladeshi know about it."

Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told the BBC the
suggestion of Israeli involvement was "utter drivel".

Opposition MP Aslam Chowdhury was recently arrested and charged with
sedition after he was pictured meeting Israeli government adviser
Mendi Safadi in India.

Mr Chowdhury described his visit to India as a business trip and has
denied meeting an Israeli intelligence agent.

Media captionBangladeshi liberals are afraid of who might be next

The latest violence was in the southern port city of Chittagong, where
Mahmuda Aktar was stabbed and shot in the head on Sunday in front of
her six-year-old son.

Her husband, Supt Babul Aktar, is investigating the banned Islamist
Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh group (JMB) and she has been a
prominent campaigner against religious extremism.

Also on Sunday, a Christian grocer was hacked to death in the
north-western village of Bonpara. So-called Islamic State (IS) said it
was behind the murder of Sunil Gomes.

Police say more than 40 people have been killed since January last
year in the wave of attacks on those seen by extremists as offensive
to Islam.

The government insists that IS does not have a presence in Bangladesh
and has tended to blame the opposition and local militant groups.

Critics have accused the government of failing to properly address the
violence in Bangladesh.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who is being targeted?
The grim list of those who have fallen victim to attacks by Islamist
militants in Bangladesh is growing ever diverse.

Secular bloggers, academics, gay rights activists, and members of
religious minorities including Shia, Sufi and Ahmadi Muslims,
Christians and Hindus have all been killed, many of them hacked to
death.

When a university professor whose family said believed in God was
murdered in April, it suggested the list of those at risk had widened
further.

Who exactly is behind the attacks remains murky. Bangladesh has myriad
extremist groups and there have been few convictions over the attacks.

Bangladesh has disputed claims by so-called Islamic State or
al-Qaeda-linked groups for the attacks, instead often blaming
opposition parties or local Islamist groups.

But until the killings stop the government itself will face
accusations of not doing enough to protect minorities in the
Sunni-dominated nation.


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