Prevent militants from radicalising inmates
Terming the absence of de-radicalisation and rehabilitation centres a “weakness”, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque yesterday proposed establishing one for detained militants to prevent them from motivating prisoners to join militancy.
He was addressing the start of a two-day international conference on “Terrorism in the Wave of Islamic State” organised by the criminology department of Dhaka University (DU) at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban.
“As the militants are highly motivated, they try to create or recruit followers wherever they stay. So I feel the necessity of establishing the centre under the jail authority or other government bodies so that they can turn back to a normal life,” he said.
Regarding terror financing, the IGP said it comes through “money laundering”.
On the ability of government agencies to counter terrorism, he said, “A specialised counter terrorism unit comprising promising and skilled police members is functioning. Training of our officials is going on, including commando training of a few officials in India.”
Deputy Inspector General Monirul Islam of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said, “Salafism, Wahhabism and such ideologies offer a distorted narrative of Islam with a wrong interpretation of jihad and Hijrat to attract people.”
He said Bangladesh's culture and history can act as a counternarrative to fight terrorism which was now a global menace.
Prof DR Ziaur Rahman of the criminology department gave the keynote speech on “Rising Terrorism in Bangladesh”.
He said the Gulshan and Sholakia attacks showed how the affluent, educated and urban youths can come together under an extreme rightist ideology.
The reasons behind the radicalisation include the absence of family bonding, community engagements and co-curricular activities, faulty education systems and other social, psychological and administrative factors.
Ambassador of the Netherlands in Bangladesh Leoni Margaretha Cuelenaere said the Netherlands has taken a strict stance against terrorism and militancy.
She stressed on protecting civilians from attacks, eliminating breeding grounds of terrorists, sharing best practices among countries and establishing democracy and freedom of speech.
Around 50 experts from home and abroad are presenting their papers at the conference.
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