COMMENT: It appears that an Islamist coup attempt in Bangladesh has been foiled (at least for the time being).

Note that the Jamaat-e-Islami (a Mus­lim  Broth­er­hood off­shoot) was a major ele­ment in the coup attempt. If such an future attempt  were to be suc­cess­ful, it would flank India with hos­tile Mus­lim nations–a devel­op­ment that would move the region toward the abyss of nuclear  war.

“Saudi Ara­bia Makes War  on Blangladesh” by Rajeev Sharma; strategypage.com; 1/24/2012.

EXCERPT: Much to the dis­tress of Indian lead­ers, on Jan­u­ary 19 the Bangladesh army announced it had thwarted a coup attempt against the gov­ern­ment, con­ceived and nearly exe­cuted by some mid-ranking offi­cers. Five army offi­cers, includ­ing a lieu­tenant colonel and two Majors have already been arrested, while a top army offi­cer is under inves­ti­ga­tion. The attempted coup was insti­gated by Islamic rad­i­cal mil­i­tary per­son­nel, includ­ing some Bangladeshis liv­ing abroad and retired and serv­ing officers. . . .

. . . Ever since the India-friendly gov­ern­ment of Prime Min­is­ter Sheikh Hasina came into office in Decem­ber 2008, her arch-rival Begum Khaleda Zia and ele­ments of Pakistan’s mil­i­tary estab­lish­ment have been plot­ting a coup. Hasina’s overly friendly ges­tures to India, includ­ing coop­er­a­tion in such diverse fields as secu­rity, counter-terrorism, trade, infra­struc­tural link­ages and, above all, her diplo­matic out­reach to India have wor­ried her polit­i­cal oppo­nents in Bangladesh and crit­ics in the Pak­istani strate­gic estab­lish­ment. The biggest “provo­ca­tion” from Hasina, as seen from the view­point of her detrac­tors, came recently when Bangladesh embarked upon the war crimes trial to pun­ish those army offi­cers who com­mit­ted excesses dur­ing the 1971 Lib­er­a­tion War.

The sim­mer­ing dis­quiet in Bangladesh was not new. Sheikh Hasina’s party Awami League has faced vio­lent attacks from pro-Pakistan Islamic rad­i­cals ever since its for­ma­tion in 1949. The party still com­mands the widest pop­u­lar sup­port base in the coun­try, but less so in the armed forces, media and the busi­ness com­mu­nity. The last Bangladesh National Party (BNP)-Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) rule (2001–06) was a clear demon­stra­tion of the fact that Islamic nation­al­ism had only been used as a garb to cap­ture power and hold on to it. . . .