Snail's pace of anti-terror special courts

One of the facilitators of effective fight against terrorism and extremism is quick disposal of cases related to these. The pace at which the two special tribunals are moving can hardly be of any help to the state efforts to fight the scourge effectively. As it is, it had taken long nine years to actually set up the courts since the act that provides for such courts was passed in 2009.

Not only is there a dearth of facilities that a trial court should have to perform efficiently, like adequate human resources, the Special Tribunal in Dhaka has to share the same room with Speedy Tribunal-3 and can sit in afternoons only. It is therefore no wonder that trial in only 12 percent of the cases (out of 908 lodged under the anti-terrorism act between 1999 and 2017) have been completed so far.

The obvious and dangerous downside of this is that delay in completing the trials weakens the case and results in suspects getting out on bail. So far, 564 suspected militants have been granted bail since January 2016 and September 2017. And given that our agencies have little resources or wherewithal to keep a tab on these people, there is all the possibility that they have re-entered the terrorism cycle.

Now that there is a dedicated tribunal to try militancy cases, they should be adequately resourced to deliver. Quick trial and conviction of the alleged terrorists and extremist will go a long way in effectively fighting the problem. We hope the government would take measures to remove the inherent shortcomings immediately.