Take a break from the chemistry of fear

In spite of the screaming travel advisories to the contrary, there's been an increase in the number of foreign arrivals at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

According to a responsible government source, in a couple of weeks between September 28 and October 11, some 24,653 foreigners had arrived in Dhaka. But in the two weeks preceding Travella's murder on September 28, a lower number, 21,015 set foot on Bangladesh.

  The impression is that the flow of overseas visitors to Bangladesh remains steady. It includes visitors, both tourist or business, from China, America, Australia and some other Western countries.

We wonder who should sit up and take note of this 'startling' data in the first place. I believe, the issuing authorities of travel restrictions may have the first call and then it is our turn to draw a sense of relief.

 Predictably, they will perhaps take a two-fold view: One, that they did not prohibit travelling into Bangladesh, only sounded a cautionary note, as regards their movements; and two, they couldn't have put fetters on the free will of their citizens to embark on a trip to any country given their liberal traditions.

In fact, Bangladesh is a late comer to the travel advisory culture which many other countries have been subjected to, for more plausible reasons than perhaps we presented them with. Syria, Libya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Lebanon for instance come to mind. This is not to exclude the internal warnings issued by authorities in some Western countries to their citizens in apprehension of extremist attacks.

For our part, we can take heart from the necessity-driven inflow of foreign visitors to the country which in a way underlines the growing importance of Bangladesh as a country to deal with.

Once a country has been put on a radar screen, it takes time for the country doing it to drop it off. In this context, Bangladesh government's pointer to countries suspecting an IS link to the foreigner killings merits attention. Its call to either produce evidence in support of their observations or delete any IS reference from their travel advisories, sounds logical.

We shall not fear to act but never act out of fear, something to that effect had been said by former US President John F. Kennedy in the thick of the Cold War era.

Cold War subsequently ended with the breakup of Soviet Union, onset of détente (short-lived in hindsight!) and fall of Berlin Wall unifying Germany. But global tension far from diminishing has only increased with ripple effects across the board. This keeps being spurred on by ideological and sectarian differences fuelled by invisible arms race, interventions and proxy wars.

As establishing a new world order remains an unfinished agenda even to this day, we are no safer than before; in fact, the world has become more complicated and dangerous to live in. Terrorism is a global problem requiring a global approach, national efforts being practically limited to homegrown varieties.

On the one hand, the whole world appears to be scurrying off to duck for safety in the face of fears, known or unknown. On the other, it's having to live with it.

Caught up in such a dilemma, you see the wisdom in the saying, 'Fear nothing more than fear itself.' It can prove handy to retool our strategies to meet ideological threats head-on.

It is, however, disconcerting to note that school teachers and imams who were assigned to exercise their good influence on students and their audience in the mosques have been a bit laidback. We pin hopes on them to instill the essence of Islam in the young hearts and minds.

Well, fear in its most chilling form we had experienced in the two months preceding the January 5, 2014 election. We remember having taken our lives in hands with an intensely corrosive fright eating into the last ounce of our vitality. We moved out of our homes looking over our shoulders all the time lest a petrol bomb were hurled burning us to cinder. Never again!

The latest threat scenario, now tapering off, could be seen as an extension of the terrorisation campaign earlier on. An IT expert working under the Information and Communications Technology Division reportedly said, 'Those trying to create anarchy in the country by killing bloggers are the same people as those claiming responsibility for killing foreigners.'

They may bear different names but essentially they're of the same ilk. This hypothesis is one of the few that the investigators should be working on. We believe it is possible to narrow down to the culprits behind the dual killings and drawing on this, unmask other truths including the invisible phenomenon of mentoring.

The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.