Dhaka, May 3 (IANS) Bangladesh has called Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden’s death ‘a major development’ and pledged its continued support to the war against terror.
‘Bangladesh values its partnership with the international community in the global effort to root out terrorism and will continue its efforts toward that end regionally, internationally and multilaterally,’ the Foreign Office said in a statement.
There was no comment from the government, the political parties or sections of the media on the fact that Osama had been killed in an operation in Pakistan’s Abbottabad city.
The reaction of the main opposition and Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was guarded as it pointed out that while in power Zia had opposed ‘all forms of terrorism’.
The Islamists reacted with ‘indifference’ and attacked the US, New Age said Tuesday.
One group said it was still to be proved whether the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington were caused by the Al Qaeda, the paper reported.
Most of the leftists also attacked the US, saying the US action was ‘a result of its desperate attempts to get rid of liabilities and hide its wrongdoings’.
Veteran Marxist thinker Badruddin Umar described Osama as ‘an activist against the imperialist axis’.
Leftist group, Workers Party of Bangladesh, said the killing of Osama by attacking a sovereign country could not be supported.
‘The US action proved once again that it cared little about the sovereignty of other countries,’ its president Rashed Khan Menon said.
The Daily Star said in an editorial: ‘It is true that for many Muslims bin Laden was a symbol of resistance against US hypocrisy and double standards. And some may have looked up to him as one that could stand up to the Americans. It was that anti-US sentiments that Laden had so skillfully exploited all these years and no doubt many had become ideologically, if not organically, associated with him.
‘But it is also true that a vast majority of the Muslims did not agree with his method of work. Killing of innocents was abhorrent to the religion that Laden aspired to establish over the world, and yet very few among the vast majority that disagreed with him, picked up the courage to protest.’
‘We in Bangladesh should do everything to eliminate all forms of extremism and religious bigotry. (Osama) promoted a brand of religious extremism that we must totally abjure and do everything to build a democratic and tolerant society,’ the newspaper added.
