Gulshan Massacre and the Collapse of Theories

Photo: Prabir Das

The Gulshan massacre has led to the collapse of two popular theories about Islamist terrorism in Bangladesh and calls for new explanations and strategies to encounter it.

On the evening of first July, around five young armed terrorists stormed into a lakeside upscale Spanish restaurant called Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka city's diplomatic enclave Gulshan allegedly uttering the words Allah-u-Akber (Allah is great).They killed 20 people including three Bangladeshis, seven Japanese, nine Italians, and one Indian. Two Bangladeshi valiant police officers died when they tried to take control of the situation. Finally, an army operation in the following morning ended the fiasco. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility of the attack and circulated some pictures of the assassinated and the assassins way before the Army operation. A Washington based terrorism monitoring website, SITE, published the claim and the pictures.

This attack is a sequel to the targeted killing of foreigners and non-Muslims which have been traumatising Bangladesh for the last several months. The attackers want to dismantle the government to transform Bangladesh into an "Islamic state". Foreigners are targeted to make their respective governments hostile to the Bangladesh government. But the Gulshan attack is unique in the history of Bangladesh in terms of its nature, tactics, ferocity, and the number of casualties. The attackers included members belonging to well-off families who studied at English medium schools and a leading private university and are familiar with the area. Some of the Gulshan assassins eloped from their families a few months ago and appeared at Holey Artisan Bakery to bestow death upon innocent people.

This massacre challenges two popular theories or explanations about the membership of the Islamist terrorist outfits. First, it has long been surmised popularly that the madrassas (religious schools) are the hotbeds of Islamist terrorism and poor youths studying at these institutions are indoctrinated by the recruiters of religious extremist groups to carry out attacks on innocent people. This assumption tumbles and invites to widen the area of vigilance for hunting down Islamic militants. The second theory suggests that Islamic militants can operate in Bangladesh because of democratic deficit and squabble between the political parties of the country. This explanation has recently been made popular by a section of the Western media. But the Gulshan attack belies this explanation. This attack is similar to the recent terrorist attacks which happened in France, Belgium, the USA and Turkey. Do these countries have democratic deficit too to pave the way for the attacks? May be; however, the Western media did not talk about democratic deficit in these countries in the aftermaths of the attacks.

We need to invoke different theories to explain the new turn in terrorist attacks in Bangladesh. I believe the theory of alienation and the power of ideology can better explain the involvement of youths in terrorist activities. Bangladeshi society has been undergoing a great transition in recent years which can be characterized by high GDP growth, increasing commercialisation and commodification of everyday life, high income inequality, changes in the family structure from joint family to nuclear family and one income household to two income household, and urbanisation. In this transition, depression and alienation among the youths, especially the upscale youths are pretty common.

Among youths who are non-practicing Muslims and having a sense of being isolated or alienated from family and friends are new targets for indoctrination by the extremists. The recruiters of the religious extremist outfits make friends with them and indoctrinate them with an ideology of Jihad which tells them they would receive eternal peace and happiness in the heaven if they could kill non-Muslims and the Muslims who do not follow the extremist brand of Islam. They are said that their act will also count as resistance against the "oppressors" of the Muslims across the world. Youths through a sustain process of indoctrination and armed training turn into assassins who do not hesitate to embrace death.

Encountering the new turn in extremism requires simultaneous and sustained efforts on two fronts. First, the targeted killings and Gulshan massacre suggest that our law enforcement agencies and their intelligence units are not skilled enough to thwart such deadly and sophisticated terrorist attacks. The law enforcement agencies including their intelligence units need to develop capabilities through appropriate training and necessary equipment. The government may consider taking foreign assistance in preparing and equipping the law enforcement agencies. Second, the institutions which French philosopher Louis Althusser called ideological institutions such as family, academic institutions such as schools, madrassas, colleges and universities, religious institutions like mosques, and mass media need to work to dispel the extremist ideology. These institutions prepare people's mindset, create their subjectivity and worldview. Only these institutions have the power to debunk the extremists' myth of eternal peace. And these are also the institutions which are supposed to give comfort to the depressed and the alienated and create an environment for people to feel assimilated in the society.

The writer is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Television and Film Studies at the University of Dhaka. He could be contacted at abhuiyan@du.ac.bd for feedback.