They have referred specifically to bomb attacks on Sheikh Hasina and British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury, assassination of former finance minister SAMS Kibria and the recent hundreds of coordinated bomb blasts across the country on August 17 as events illustrating the depth of the ever-rising problem of political violence in Bangladesh.

The worst comment was that the possibility of Bangladesh becoming a failed state and a base of operations for international terrorist organisations should be part of discussions at the summit. Whether or not President Bush will raise the Bangladesh issue at the summit is a matter of the US government. But the fact that the political violence in Bangladesh, particularly the bombing spree that has gripped the country during the rule of the present coalition government, is no longer an internal issue of the country, and is being talked about by the international community, especially by the lone superpower of the world, is a matter which is deeply worrisome for the people of Bangladesh. A country liberated through a bloody war and sacrifice of millions of people 34 years ago is now being branded as a likely failed state and a base of operations for international terrorist organisations thanks to the ineptitude and utter failure of this government as well as all previous governments to rein in the rising religious militancy in the country.

The government has always been playing down religious terrorism as a phenomenon not serious enough to be worried about. There have been bomb blasts at Udichi functions, Baishakhi celebrations, shrines, cinema halls, Awami League rally at Dhaka, CPB rally, Awami League meeting at Habiganj. Three prominent Awami League leaders -- SAMS Kibria, Ahsanullah Master, and Ivy Rahman (the former two were sitting MPs) were killed. British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury was injured. But no serious effort has been made by the government so far to hunt down the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.

Perhaps being emboldened by the government's failure and apparent lack of enthusiasm to nab the criminals engaged in illegal arms trade and bomb blasts, the terrorists carried out hundreds of coordinated bomb blasts across the country on August 17, leaving this time not only trails of devastation, but also leaflets of their philosophy and identity behind. The perpetrators of these horrendous acts of terrorism claimed to be members of the banned Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an ultra-radical Islamic terrorist outfit. State intelligence and law enforcement agencies have geared up their operations and succeeded in raiding the hideouts of the terrorists. The arms, explosives, and various training materials recovered and the statements made by suspects arrested so far unmistakably bear out not only the existence and involvement of the banned JMB in the bomb blasts, but also its possible connection with Jamat-e-Islami Bangladesh as many former Jamat-e-Islami and Shibir activists are now found to be members of the JMB.

Curiously enough, the statement by the State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar on the floor of the Jatiya Sangsad that intelligence agencies have found involvement of Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh in the August 17 bomb blasts across the country drew a sharp rebuttal from Jamat-e-Islami lawmaker Riasat Ali Biswas, terming intelligence reports of JMB involvement as absolutely baseless, which lends credence to the suspicion that JMB has some sort of nexus with Jamat-e-Islami (otherwise why would Jamat-e-Islami lawmakers Riasat Ali Biswas and Delwar Hossain Saidee volunteer to take the floor in defence of the banned JMB and Harkatul Jihad in a call attention notice on the same issue of bomb blasts when the Home Minister did not make even an oblique reference to Jamat-e-Islami being involved?).

It is pertinent to note that Awami League has always been pointing its accusing finger at Jamat-e-Islami for all the bomb blasts which occurred so far, and at the BNP for conveniently winking at it. On the other hand, both Jamat-e-Islami and BNP have been putting the blame squarely on Awami League for almost all the bomb blasts including those which killed and injured Awami League leaders and workers. These accusations and counter-accusations by the government and opposition parties and their bitter deep-seated enmity have brought the nation to such a pass that we are now facing ignominy and humiliation both at home and abroad. A nation of 140 million freedom-loving people who shed blood willingly to wrest freedom in 1971 is now faced with a new crisis of religious militancy which is out to destroy that freedom and turn this country into a veritable Taliban state to be ruled by clerics of Mollah Omar variety.

With India and the US now busy fighting a war on terror world-wide, the possibility of Bangladesh becoming a theocratic state and hence a likely playground for Islamic militants and international terrorists groups looks very distant. Besides, unlike in Afghanistan, the common run of the people of Bangladesh are wedded to secular culture and are deeply conscious of their democratic rights and aspirations. We can also boast of an ever-growing very enlightened civil society, human rights groups, various democratic institutions in place, and to top it all there is a large segment of highly educated and well-meaning men and women amongst us which makes it hard to believe that a Taliban type of government will succeed here as it did in Afghanistan. Therefore there is all the more reason to believe that the push for the so called Islamisation or Talibanisation will meet stiff resistance from the people and ultimately peter out -- but not before plenty of blood will have been shed and plenty of death and destruction visited on this beautiful country of ours.

It is this government which can go down in history either as the savior of independence, peace, progress, communal harmony, and democracy, by tracking down the terrorists and uprooting them from the soil of Bangladesh, no matter who they are and how strong they are, or as a sponsor of religious militancy and international terrorist groups, by shutting its eyes to and conniving with those politico-religious forces, which under the cover of state protection and patronisation are trying to run a parallel government within the government, and are bent upon launching a so-called Islamic revolution in the country with the ultimate aim of capturing state power and authority.

As I said before in one of my writings in this paper, it is not whether AL or BNP is going to win or lose the next election which is at stake. It is the very existence of Bangladesh as a sovereign, independent, progressive, democratic, and moderate Muslim state which is at stake. This is no time for polemics and for mudslinging by our political leaders, who always wax eloquent promising to work for establishing democracy and democratic rights of the people in this country, but hardly do anything to translate their promise into action.

This is the time to look beyond winning the election and climbing back to power. This is the time for action to save Bangladesh from falling into the hands of Islamic militants and zealots. A situation as grave as this calls for closing the ranks between the government and the opposition, and more pointedly between BNP and AL in order to fight our own war on terror.

Will Prime Minister Khaleda Zia rise to the occasion and act as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and not merely as the chairperson of BNP? And will also Sheikh Hasina rise to the occasion and act truly as the Leader of the Opposition and not just as the president of Awami League? Is it too much to ask of our two main political leaders?

The writer is a freedom fighter and former Military Secretary to the President.