Anti-terrorism monitoring bodies to be formed
Monitoring committees will be formed in every neighbourhood across the country with representatives from professional and social organisations to fight militancy and terrorism, Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim said yesterday.
The AL-led 14-party alliance would coordinate the activities of the committees, which will provide information to law enforcers every suspicious movement or anyone going missing, he told an anti-terrorism rally in the capital.
The 14-party leaders will visit different districts including Rangpur, Panchagarh, Sirajganj, Bogra and Comilla to raise awareness against militancy, he said.
The alliance held a similar rally in Chittagong city, making the same announcement.
ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, the alliance's coordinator in Chittagong, said committees would be formed in every ward, thana and vicinity with the alliance activists. “We would provide the list of the committee members to the police soon,” he said.
“Many upstarts have intruded and are trying to foil the party's spirit,” said Mohiuddin, also the president of Chittagong city unit AL, adding, “All have to be united to combat militancy.”
AL lawmaker Wasika Ayesha Khan urged the guardians to be attentive so that children do not become easy targets.
President of Chittagong north district unit AL Nurul Alam Chowdhury criticised some television channels' role during the militant attack at a Gulshan café. Live broadcasting, he said, “sent a wrong message”.
Addressing the rally in Dhaka, the 14-party leaders urged all pro-liberation and non-communal forces to be united to tackle the threat.
However, they said there would be no unity with BNP because they said BNP and Jamaat were patrons of militancy.
“Unity cannot be formed with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia,” said AL Presidium Member Matia Chowdhury.
Workers' Party of Bangladesh President Rashed Khan Menon said, “We will not form unity with BNP until it cuts relations with Jamaat.”
AL International Affairs Secretary Faruk Khan urged international media to cover anti-terrorism programmes in the country so that the international community could know that the people of Bangladesh were against militancy.
Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) President Hasanul Huq Inu said everybody at grassroots level must build resistance against militancy.
Bangladesh Bar Council Vice Chairman Abdul Baset Majumder urged lawyers not to provide legal support to criminals, involved with militancy and terrorism.
Around 30 leaders of AL and its alliance partners and leaders of different professional bodies including Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad, Jatiya Press Club, Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB), Krishibid Institution Bangladesh, Sammilito Sangskritik Jote, and Dhaka University Teachers' Association also spoke.
TIGHT SECURITY
Law enforcers took tight security measures centering on the rally. Vehicular movement on different streets adjacent to the Shaheed Minar was stopped. People, who joined the rally, were checked at multiple points with metal detectors.
Besides, law enforcers set up a temporary control room near the memorial and monitored the entire event with closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras.
RALLY OF OIKYA NAP
It is very important to be united against militants, speakers told a rally in front of Bangladesh National Museum yesterday.
“The government will have to take initiatives for creating national unity but they must ask BNP to leave Jamaat,” said Pankaj Bhattacharya, president of Oikya NAP.
While BNP does not want to leave Jamaat, the Awami League does not want to ban Jamaat, he said.
Oikya Nap, Shammilito Samajik Andolon and Bangladesh Adibasi Forum jointly organised the programme.
Ziaudding Tareque Ali, acting president of Shammilito Samajik Andolon, said banks and financial institutions should be under government's surveillance so as to prevent them from financing militant groups.
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