A Monopoly on Violence

The sovereign state is many things, but above all, it is a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. When that monopoly is shattered -- not by foreign invading armies, but by localized, heavily armed syndicates operating within a nation’s own geographic borders -- the state ceases to be a state in anything but name. It becomes a failed state.

What is unfolding in Jungle Salimpur, a 3,100-acre tract of government-owned land in the Sitakunda Upazila of Chittagong, is not mere lawlessness. It is a direct, armed insurrection against the sovereignty of Bangladesh.

Consider the sheer audacity of the events on May 25. A mob of 200 to 250 men, part of the notorious "Yasin Bahini" syndicate led by the criminal kingpin Md Yasin, descended upon an under-construction joint forces camp. They did not arrive under the cover of night with small arms alone; they arrived with bulldozers. They systematically demolished nearly 70 percent of the security camp, exchanged gunfire with state forces for two hours, and dug up vital roads and culverts to deliberately maroon law enforcement and prevent reinforcements from arriving.

This followed an equally brazen assault on January 19, when a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) team executing an arms-recovery operation was ambushed by a mob of 400 to 500 criminals mobilized via loudspeakers. In that encounter, state forces were taken hostage, several were wounded, and Naib Subedar Md Motaleb Hossain Bhuiyan was killed.

For a criminal gang to twice defeat, dismantle, or kill members of elite state security forces within five months is an intolerable humiliation for any government. Yet, the physical violence is only half the crisis. The more insidious threat lies in the bizarre, ideological nature of the demand now being pushed through relentless propaganda by the Yasin group: the complete "independence" or "liberation" of Jungle Salimpur.

To the casual observer, the demand for a criminal fiefdom to be granted sovereign autonomy sounds entirely farcical. It is easy to dismiss it as a joke. But history warns us that when state institutions collapse and criminal enterprises grow wealthy off land-grabbing and illegal arms, their demands transition rapidly from financial impunity to political sovereignty.

We have seen this tragic script play out across South Asia and the broader developing world whenever central governments grow frail. In Pakistan’s erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), decades of state absenteeism transformed local criminal networks into heavily armed, autonomous entities that eventually challenged the nuclear-armed state itself.

In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro or the cartel-dominated regions of Michoacán, Mexico, criminal syndicates effectively achieved "liberation" from the state, establishing parallel tax systems, parallel judiciaries, and heavily fortified borders that state police cross only at the risk of their lives.

How did Bangladesh arrive at a point where local land grabbers feel emboldened to declare their own micro-republic? The answer lies in the profound institutional decay that preceded the current administration.

The preceding interim government led by Yunus left behind a legacy of ruin. By systematically dismantling the chain of command within the security forces and patronizing partisan mobs for short-term political survival, they fostered an environment of "state-sponsored mobocracy." When the state itself begins using mobs to enforce its will, it effectively signals to every local warlord, gang leader, and extortionist that the rule of law is dead and that power belongs exclusively to whoever possesses the most firepower and the largest crowd.

The shattering of the security forces' internal discipline under the previous administration created a vacuum. In that vacuum, groups like the Yasin Bahini grew from localized nuisances into existential threats. Now, an unsuspecting public is being pulled into a vicious, highly dangerous cycle, manipulated by criminal propaganda to see these fiefdoms as legitimate, autonomous entities rather than what they truly are: dens of violent extortion.

The administration led by Mr Tareque Rahman must recognize that this is a defining test of its tenure. There can be no negotiation, no backroom political compromise, and no hand-wringing over the "complex socio-economic roots" of the Salimpur crisis. When a criminal group deploys bulldozers against the military and requests the territorial dismemberment of the nation, the time for nuance has passed.

A sovereign state cannot absorb these sorts of subversive demands. To tolerate them, or to treat them as ordinary municipal crimes, is to invite the total balkanization of Bangladesh's internal security. If Jungle Salimpur is allowed to stand as a self-governing criminal sanctuary, what stops the next armed syndicate in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, or the Sundarbans, or the urban slums of Dhaka from demanding their own "liberation"?

The response from the government must be swift, unyielding, and executed with an iron hand. The deployment of border guard platoons is a minor administrative step; what is required is a comprehensive, sustained military and law enforcement sweep to permanently dismantle the Yasin Bahini, reclaim every square inch of the 3,100 acres of government land, and bring those who murdered Naib Subedar Bhuiyan to absolute justice.

Sovereignty is not maintained by lines drawn on a map or by seats held at the United Nations. It is maintained by the absolute certainty that if you attack the forces of the state, the state will break you. The BNP government must send that message clearly to Jungle Salimpur, before the rot spreads too deep to cure.

M A Hossain is a journalist and international affairs analyst, based in Bangladesh.