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. . . .