A spate of killings in Bangladesh during the week spreading from September to October has shook the nation breeding insecurity among the foreigners.

All these started with the killing of Cesare Tavella, an Italian aid worker in Dhaka on 28th September. Barely five days after the fist killing, another foreigner- a 66-year old Japanese national Hoshi Kuniyoknown widely for philanthropic work – was shot dead by three masked gunmen near his agricultural firm on the outskirts of Rangpur,335 km north of Dhaka, on 3rd October.

He was the second foreigner to be gunned down in a week in a modus operandi similar to Italian’s murder. As if these two killings were not enough, Luke Sarker, 52- a pastor of Faith Bible Church- was attacked by three unidentified persons on 5th October who tried to slit his throat but he narrowly escaped with minor injuries. The assailants had taken an appointment a fortnight ago on the pretext of learning Christianity.

Government has deployed heavily armed police to guard capital’s diplomatic zone amidst calls by US and EU to quickly bring the perpetrators to justice. Attacks on foreigners are usually rare but Bangladesh has been experiencing the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism over last year when four online critics of religious militancy including a US citizen of Bangladesh origin were hacked to death. ‘There will continue to be a series of ongoing security operations against nationals of crusaders coalition countries, they will not have safety or a livelihood in Muslim lands,’ IS warned on twitter on 3rdOctober.

Though the Islamic State (IS) had claimed responsibility for the murderous attack on the Japanese and the Italian, the claim has been squarely dismissed by Bangladesh Prime Minister who suspects that it is not the IS but the opposition which is behind foreigners’ killings.

The arrest by police of a member of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami political party, over pastor’s murder provides credence to government’s allegation of involvement of opposition parties. The government smells that the opposition- BNP and Jamaat alliance in particular- has definitely abetted these murders in an attempt to ‘tarnish’ govt’s image, overshadow its achievements and working towards destabilising the country.

The intelligence agencies of both Bangladesh and India presume the dastardly acts to have been carried out by elements subscribing to IS ideology who may not necessarily be its active members. The killing may have been lone wolf operation executed by IS sympathiser but the fact that such an attack has happened in Dhaka enhances the threat of similar strikes in India. Owning up the killing of Italian aid worker the IS revealed subsequently that it had tracked and killed Tavella .

At the similar time last year, on October 2, 2014 to be precise, blasts in a house in Burdwan, had left two persons dead. NIA arrested Tarikul Islam from Jharkhand on 6th October, 2015 whose interrogation revealed the blast to be a part of larger conspiracy of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to organise terror attacks in Bangladesh and India. JMB was found to have organised terror training camps at Simuliamadrasa and manufactured IEDs-all at Burdwan- and transported the bombs to Bangladesh.

The group was found to have established networks in Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda,Birbhum and Burdwan in West Bengal; Sahibganj and Pakurin Jharkhand and Barpetta in Assam.

In fact JMB was part of an international conspiracy to overthrow democratically elected government of Sheikh Hasina ‘through violent terrorist acts and replace it with a hard-line Sharia based Islamic rule, which came to light after the accidental blast.’ It is worrying that there seems to be proliferation of radical Islamic groups in the country, of late, who pose a clear terror threat.

As India wages a no-holds barred war against terror- sounding out the dangers of terrorism in all bilateral and multilateral platforms including UN- rising tides of fundamentalism in its backyards is certainly a matter of grave concern. However, given the unequivocal resolve of Hasina government to fight terror while galloping on the highway of progress and prosperity, current disturbances may hopefully pass off just as a passing phase. Both the peace loving neighbours, however, need to be on guard.

(This appeared in New Delhi Times on October 17, 2015)