How extremism came to Bangladesh

But analysts say foreign support is only part of the equation, arguing that extremism has found room to flourish because Islamist politics are gaining ground here. The ruling BNP party, they point out, came to power in 2001 by forming a coalition with two Islamist parties, Jamaat-e-Islami and Islamic Oikye Jote, which together hold 20 seats in parliament.

"The rise of Islamist parties creates a permissive environment, making it difficult to crackdown on militants when the people in power are aligned with Islamist politics," says Ms. Fair.

There is no proof linking terrorist activities to the Jamaat Party, but militants arrested over the past two years have claimed links to local-level Jamaat members, while police have described others as former members of Jamaat's student wing.

The Jamaat Party, however, denies these allegations. "The number is very low. It's not proof that Jamaat-e-Islami was involved in terrorist activities," says Mr. Kamaruzzaman.

Critics of Jamaat are not convinced. Abul Barkat, an economist at Dhaka University, says he's spent the past seven years tracing Jamaat's growing financial power. What he discovered frightened him. "Their central vision is to capture state power," he says, adding the party generates almost $200 million in annual profit, according to his analysis of Jamaat-owned businesses, which he says runs the gamut from banks and insurance companies to technology and media concerns. "They are an economy within the economy - a state within a state," he says, with some profits used to fund militant organizations like JMB.

Kamaruzzaman denies that Jamaat sponsors or patronizes any violent activities: "We have no secret agenda."

Critics like Mr. Barkat see the rise of Islamism as a failure of the democratic process here. Democratic institutions, they say, have been paralyzed by corruption and the enmity between the ruling BNP and the opposition Awami League. Both parties, when not in power, boycott parliamentary sessions and implement nationwide strikes.

"Democracy has gone far downhill since it came in 1991," says William Milam, a former US ambassador to Bangladesh. "Bangladesh is really not a democracy because the government which is elected freely and fairly cannot govern - and that applies to both parties."

Bangladeshi political observers agree, noting that the two parties immediately accused each other after the Aug. 17 attacks, instead of uniting to condemn it, as many had hoped.

Economic inequalities are rising against the backdrop of declining governance, adding fuel to the extremist fire. "Although we have reduced poverty over the last few years by about a percentage a year, inequality is still increasing," says Mustafizur Rahman, research director of the Center for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka. He points out that many of the militants arrested in the wake of Aug. 17 have been from the lowest class of society.

Arresting the culprits, say security experts, now requires the cooperation of the mainstream parties. "This blaming game always demoralizes the investigators," says A.S.M. Shahjahan, a former chief of the national police. "Consensus is a must for the people to come together as a bulwark against this. That is the need of the hour."

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