The opposition has been long accusing at least part of the government machinery of being in cahoots with the militants. However, is there any substance to that claim? Why would the government want to destabilize itself?

In the past three years, however, there is clear proof that this government has systematically encouraged Islamic fundamentalism. Now that it is finally clear who has been responsible for all the bombings in the past six years, it is time to look forward to a solution to this menace and also to look back and trace back the government actions and hold them accountable for what they said and did, and to make an honest judgment on whether this government is capable of finding a solution to this problem.

Although, the militant attacks started in 1999, they took a more direct and lethal shape since 2003. The government's approach to any kind of fundamentalist threats was one of appeasement. To be more precise, the government's actions about the militant activities can be broken down in three categories. Denials, misinvestigation, and passive encouragement. Let's explore each of these three in details.

Denials
Until February 2005, and that too after intense pressure from the EU, who were reviewing their aid and had connected it with the government's human rights record, the government did not admit the existence of Islamic extremists. Any talk of extremism was met with a vicious tirade, accusing the speakers of conspiring to tarnish the image of Bangladesh to the outside world. The state minister for home affairs is on record telling BBC radio on January 26 this year:

"We don't know officially about the existence of the JMJB. Only some so-called newspapers are publishing reports on it. We don't have their constitution in our record." Making the comment to the BBC radio, the state minister, on government's inaction to arrest Bangla Bhai, said, "I oppose very strongly that our ministry has failed to take action, because we are still trying. How would we arrest anyone if he is absent physically or not available?" The government first denied Bangla Bhai's existence, then said they could not find him. Even Prime Minister Khaleda Zia herself, while exchanging views with editors in August last year, said there is no existence of Bangla Bhai. Ruling coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami ameer and Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami on July 22 last year said: "Bangla Bhai was created by some newspapers." He also accused newspapers of having links with Bangla Bhai. "If they (newspapers) do not have any relations with him (Bangla Bhai) then how do they publish exclusive interview of Bangla Bhai," the Jamaat ameer told a press conference.

What was alarming was that the government did not stop at just making denial. They wanted to teach journalists a lesson for any talk of religious intolerance or of Al Qaeda presence in Bangladesh. In December, 2002, four journalists, two foreign and two local, were arrested and charged with treason for doing a report the rise of extremism in Bangladesh. I met two of them -- Saleem Samad and Priscilla Raj -- after their release and the story of brutal torture mitigated upon them was not of a happy ending. Saleem Samad, since then, has been in exile after repeatedly getting harassed by the government and Priscilla was still going to court fighting her treason charges.

There are countless other examples where government fiercely tried to resist anyone who tried to say anything about the rise of extremism and growing religious intolerance in Bangladesh. Whether it was the Proshika officer who had two books in his possession on minority oppression or whether it was Reuter's stringer Enamul Huq Chowdhury who quoted the then information minister on Al Qaeda presence in Bangladesh -- all met with arrests, treason charges, and brutal torture.

Abatement and misinvestigation
As late as November 29, Rab arrested Bangla bhai's right hand man Khamaru and released him on the same day without charges due to the lobbying of a deputy minister. This has been the pattern throughout until recently. Not only the major bombing investigations were uninvestigated, they were misdirected to get to the intellectuals and the political enemies of Jamaat-e-Islami. The cinema hall blast in Mymensingh by the militants resulted in the arrest of Shahriar Kabir and Muntasir Mamoon -- two journalist/professors in their fifties, known for their outspoken criticism of Islamic fundamentalism. From the stabbing of Shamsur Rahman to the slashing of Humayun Azad, each incident of attacks on intellectuals remained uninvestigated while people were being thrown into jail for "misquoting" the information minister. Apart from the misdirection of the investigation, when the perpetrators got caught, Jamaat lobbied successfully to free a lot of the arrested. The Daily Star on September 22 published a detailed account of Jamaat's involvement with the terrorists:

"According to police record, over 100 militants were arrested during January-August this year in connection with the bombings, and all the arrestees either belong to Jamaat or its various wings at present or worked with them earlier.

Whenever any Jamaat or Shibir activist was arrested for militant activities, Jamaat lobbied for their release, and where they failed, they announced that the arrested militant had been expelled from the party earlier."

Getting hint from the administration, there were deliberate attempts of the police to not follow through on any investigation properly. Another detailed article on the government's reluctance towards investigating clues left by the militants leave a shocking tale:

"'Most militants were arrested only to be released on bail later to go ahead with their activities. In some cases, the incidents were not even investigated further.

In 2003, decoded diaries of the militants stunned the investigators with information that the outfit had training stations in 57 districts with bases at the Ahle Hadith mosques and madrasas. They have well-equipped training stations in all the 16 northern and some southern districts, and small stations in other districts where they operate,' the then inspector of Joypurhat Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Khalilur Rahman told The Daily Star. 'If not taken care of properly now, the situation may go worse,' apprehended some investigators who interrogated the arrested militants before and found their strong stance for not revealing anything.

The documents found with the militants so far, especially in Joypurhat, were never thoroughly examined although some of those carried minutes of the outfit's internal meetings, names of training centres, patrons and leaders."

More alarmingly clues were left untraced and case documents were getting burnt suspiciously. It was obvious, someone from inside did not want these incidents to be investigated:

"The JMB existence came to light on May 20, 2002 when police nabbed eight militants in Parbatipur of Dinajpur with 25 petrol bombs and documents. The eight were later released on bail and the investigation was stalled as the case documents went missing in a 'mysterious' fire at the Parbatipur PS in 2003."

Passive encouragement
The biggest crime to my mind, however, was the direct patronage of the government to the Islamic fundamentalist forces like Khatme Nabuwat. Not only were the post election atrocities on the Hindu community tolerated, it directly encouraged groups that incite violence against minority Ahmadiyyas by giving into their demand of banning their publication. Repeatedly, Ahmadiyya mosques around the country were vandalized with the police watching from the sidelines and sometime lending them a helping hand. It was only because of an organized campaign by the Ahmadiyyas and human rights organizations that the complete declaration of Ahmadiyyas as non-Muslims could be averted. After each bombing incident against the opposition party, leaders from BNP termed the incidents as set ups, making the investigation mute and emboldening the militants even more.

From the discussion above, a direct pattern of denial, abatement, and appeasement of the militants is obvious, raising the question that whether tackling of this grave issue is at all possible by this government or if their credibility is damaged beyond repair. For argument's sake, even if one accepts that the denials were made to save their collective face, what cannot be just passed on as incompetence or error of judgment is the abatement, appeasement and encouragement of the fundamentalists by the government.

As I write today, I am watching ATN Bangla news to see that the business community (FBCCI) has asked for unity among the political parties. I am puzzled. So what if BNP and AL sit together to meet and send a joint statement. Will this problem be resolved? Don't we need a solid investigation, drying out of their earning source, and most importantly cleansing out of the administration the infiltrators who are making a sincere investigation impossible? FBCCI knows better than that. Similarly, the prime minister is talking about making stringent new law to punish these people. The most stringent law can give them death sentence. But in case the PM did not notice, they are not waiting to get caught. They are happily welcoming death for the "better life."

Based on the fact that BNP has taken no initiative to prove that they are sincere in tackling this extremism, and their government or certain part of their government has continuously misled the investigation, and in some key cases, deliberately let go of the perpetrators, it is perhaps safe to assume that the solution to the extremist issue is not possible by the current government. However, it is not the end of the road for them. The prime minister can come clean, just like she did on her last speech to the nation admitting the rise of extremism in the country for the first time. The principle actions that she can take are:

• Ban all religious extremist organizations like Khatme Nabuwat and Amra Dhakabashi;
• Bring kaomi madrassahs under close control of the government;
• Calling end to the alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami; and
• Cleanse extremist sympathizers from the administration and the party.

Only by taking these steps, BNP can restore its credibility and ensure that total wipe-out is averted in the coming election. This will also enable the opposition to join in. Coming together with a unified voice, we will be able crush this mindless lunacy. But for the time being, before talking about unity among political parties, we need to admit that the ball is squarely in the court of BNP, in order for them to make the next move.

If this does not happen, then there are enough reasons to believe that what happened in the last four years in the name of dealing with extremists has been calculated and deliberate. Perhaps, we would need to stop giving BNP the benefit of doubt after that and not treat them any differently than any other right-wing fundamentalist religious party in the mould of Jamaat.

Asif Saleh is Executive Director of Drishtipat, a human rights organization.