Last year, more than 50 young people from different parts of the country disappeared. Of them, at least seven were originally from Comilla, southeast of Dhaka. One of the confirmed victims is student Al Amin, who wanted to return home, but was ambushed by another paramilitary group. Government policies to counter radicalism.
Dhaka () – The death of two young people in the training centers of radical groups once again draws attention to Islamic fundamentalism which, despite government policies and interventions in mosques, remains a current and widespread phenomenon . Only last year, more than 50 young people disappeared from different parts of the country to join jihadist movements. Police recently discovered that of these missing youths, at least two later died inside these rebel-linked centers.
Of the young people who had been sent for indoctrination and training (some of them even passed through Turkey for a short period of time), at least seven were from Comilla, a city of more than 1.6 million inhabitants located about a hundred kilometers southeast of Dhaka, a division of Chittagong. Among them was Aminul Islam alias Al Amin, 23, a student at Victoria Government College who had not been heard from since 23 August. Others were reportedly detained or returned home after a short period.
The Bangladeshi government has been promoting policies and initiatives for some time, trying to involve families as well, to counter recruitment into extremist groups or the return of the disappeared, but obstacles and resistance hinder the plans, at the cost of human lives. One of these victims is Al Amin, assassinated in one of the hideouts used by the paramilitaries in a mountainous and remote area of Bandarban, in the southeast of the country. After his death, which seems to date back to November 15, his companions would have buried him in the mountains, but his family’s search for his body to guarantee him a more dignified burial was in vain. .
According to some versions, the young man had tried to return home after realizing the mistake he had made in embracing the jihadist path. However, he failed to redeem himself in time when he was ambushed by another newly created extremist organization, the Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqsfia, which killed Al Amin and other members of the Kuki-Chin National Front (Knf) separatist movement. When his father, Nurul Islam, dug up the grave, he did not find the body of his son, but only an empty white sheet.
Bangladesh is a nation with a large Muslim majority in which only 8% of the inhabitants profess Hinduism, Christianity or Buddhism. In the last 10 years, hundreds of intellectuals, bloggers, secular and atheist publishers, foreigners, homosexuals and religious minorities (including those who profess Shiite Islam) have been assassinated by Islamic extremists. The government has inaugurated many model mosques across the country, where imams teach a perspective of faith contrary to jihadism and the radical vision of fundamentalists.
