Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI). A political party that dates back to the British colonial era, and the (East) Pakistan period (1947-1971). It supported Pakistan against the Bengali nationalists during the liberation war, and most of its leaders fled to (West) Pakistan after Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. Its then Amir, or leader, Gholam Azam, fought against the freedom fighters in 1971, but returned to Bangladesh a few years later. In December 2000, Motiur Rahman Nizami, another former pro-Pakistani militant, took over as Amir of the Jamaat. In the October 2001 election, the Jamaat emerged as the third largest party with seventeen seats in the parliament and two ministers in the new coalition government. The Jamaat’s final aim is an Islamic state in Bangladesh, although this will be implemented step by step.

Islami Chatra Shibir (ICS). Jamaat’s youth organization. Set up in 1941, it became a member of the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations in 1979. ICS is also a member of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth and has close contacts with other radical Muslim youth groups in Pakistan, the Middle East, Malaysia, and Indonesia. One of its main strongholds in Bangladesh is at the university in Chittagong, and it dominates privately run Madrassas all over the country. It has been involved in a number of bomb blasts and politically and religiously motivated assassinations. Nurul Islam Bulbul is its current president and Muhammad Nazrul Islam is the secretary general.

Islamic Oikyo Jote (IOJ). A smaller Islamic party that last year joined the four-party alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which won the October 2001 election. The IOJ secured two seats in the parliament, but did not get any cabinet posts. The fourth member of the alliance, a faction of the Jatiyo Party led by Anwar Hussain Manju, has no obvious Islamic profile.

Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO). A political group among Rohingya migrants from Burma, who live in the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazaar area, and claim to be fighting for an autonomous Muslim region in Burma’s Arakan (Rakhine) State. It was set up in 1998 through a merger of the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF) and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO). Within months, however, the front fell apart. The leader of what remains of ARNO, Nurul Islam, is considered a moderate. He also led the ARIF before the merger in 1998.

Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO). Following the breakup of ARNO in 1999-2000, three new factions emerged, all of them re-claiming the old name RSO. Traditionally, the RSO has been very close to Jamaat-e-Islami and Islamic Chatra Shibir in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar. In the early 1990s, RSO had several military camps near the Burmese border, where cadres from the Islamic Chatra Shibir were also trained in guerrilla warfare.