The Biden administration and several lawmakers in the United States Congress are extending support towards Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), despite the fact that it is an undesignated terrorist organization, while the party’s current acting chairman Tarique Rahman is a convicted terrorist.

On August 21, 2004, at the direct instructions of Tarique Rahman, terrorists of BNP along with members of militancy outfits such as Harkat-ul-Jihad (HuJI) had launched grenade attacks targeting Sheikh Hasina and leaders of Awami League. According to the court verdict, this gruesome attack was a well-orchestrated plan through abuse of state power.

And all the accused, including BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman and former top intelligence officials, were found guilty and handed down various punishments for the grenade attacks that killed 24 people and injured scores. In the murder case, Tarique and 18 others were sentenced to life in prison.

Major General Gaganjit Singh, former Deputy Director General of Bharat’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman was the mastermind of 10 truck arms haul in Chattogram [Chittagong] in 2004.

Talking to India Today and a television channel in Bangladesh, he said the arms were being supplied under direct patronization of the then BNP-Jamaat alliance to use Bangladesh as a sanctuary.

Ten trucks full of arms seized at Chittagong in April 2004 was meant not only for the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) but also for a few other rebel groups in Bharat’s northeast to destabilize the country, he added. The arms were being supplied by taking advantage of the BNP-Jamaat alliance to use Bangladesh as a sanctuary, Singh revealed.

It may be mentioned here that, BNP tried to turn Bangladesh into a sharia state by spreading cocoons of terror while it has also been actively working in sponsoring cross-border terrorism and international terrorism with the nefarious agenda of spreading seeds of terrorism within the Bharatiya states.

According to court documents published by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) dated December 16, 2016, while giving verdict to an asylum petition of a BNP activist, an Immigration Judge in the United States found the petitioner to be credible but concluded that he was ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal due to his inadmissibility under section 212(a)(3)(B)(i)(VI) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3)(B)(i)(VI), as a member of the BNP – which the Immigration Judge deemed to be an undesignated terrorist organization under section 212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(III) of the Act (I.J. at 3-6).2

But for the respondent’s inadmissibility under section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Act, the Immigration Judge would have granted the respondent’s application for asylum under section 208(b) of the Act based on showings of past persecution and a well-founded fear of future persecution in Bangladesh on account of his political opinion (I.J. at 6-9; Exh. 3 at 5; Tr. at 10, 22-40).  

The court verdict further said:

Generally under the Act, a group is designated as a “terrorist organization” either by the Secretary of State pursuant to section 219 of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1189, or by publishing the designation in the Federal Register after the Secretary determines, in consultation with the Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Security, that the group engages in “terrorist activity.” 5 See sections 212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(I), (II) of the Act. However, even if not so designated, a group may qualify as an undesignated “terrorist organization” if it is composed of “a group of two or more individuals, whether organized or not, which engages in, or has a subgroup which engages in [terrorist] activities.” Section 212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(III) of the Act. Nevertheless, even if an alien is a member of an undesignated terrorist organization he or she remains eligible to seek asylum and withholding of removal, if he or she can “demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that [he or she] did not know, and should not reasonably have known, that the organization was a terrorist organization.” Section 212(a)(3)(B)(i)(VI) of the Act.

Unlike with designated terrorist organizations under sections 212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(I) and (II), a determination regarding a group’s status as an undesignated terrorist organization under section 212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(III) of the Act must be made on a case-by-case basis, in connection with an individual application for immigration benefits. See U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Servs., Dep’t of Homeland Security, Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds (TRIG), uscis.gov (follow “Laws” hyperlink; and then follow “Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds” hyperlink); see also Melanie Nezer, The Material Support Problem: Where US. Anti-Terrorism Laws, Refugee Protection, and Foreign Policy Collide, 13 Brown J. World Aff. 177, 179 (2006). For this reason, any determination regarding the BNP’s status as an undesignated terrorist organization under section 212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(III) of the Act is case-specific and must be based on the facts presented in each individual case.

According to the Department of Justice, Tier III terrorist organizations are also called “undesignated terrorist organizations” because they qualify as terrorist organizations based on their activities alone without undergoing a formal designation process like Tier I and Tier II organizations.

Neo-Taliban forces want to capture power in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Nationalist Party from its very birth under military dictator General Ziaur Rahman has been vigorously pushing-forward anti-Bharat, anti-Hindu and pro-Islamist agenda with the aim of turning Bangladesh into another Afghanistan or Pakistan. During BNP’s rule of 2001-2006, supporters of this party were seen openly chanting slogans Aamra Hobo Taliban, Bangla Hobey Afghan (We shall become Taliban, Bangla will turn into Afghanistan) and burning American flags on the streets of Dhaka and other major cities.

Furthermore, BNP had directly sponsored and patronized Islamist militancy outfit Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) while it was maintaining direct links with Harkat-ul Jihad (HuJI), Khatmey Nabuwat Movement (an anti-Ahmadia outfit) and were behind terrorist acts targeting religious minorities such as Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Ahmadis and others.

It may be mentioned here that Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is believed to have been founded as an offshoot of a Pakistani group in 1992 with money and support from suspected global terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Western intelligence officials believe a certain Fazlul Rahman, who signed bin Laden’s February 23, 1998, declaration of holy war on the US on behalf of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh, is an associate of the now independent group.