‘They’re not just offenders, but victims as well’

Both the affluent and marginalised can be vulnerable to involvement in terrorism as terrorists do not pursue violence simply based on ideology, according to a study.

"We found two groups -- affluent and marginalised -- vulnerable to terrorism," said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

He shared the findings at a pre-launch event of a book titled "Terrorism in Bangladesh: The Process of Radicalization and Youth Vulnerabilities" on Wednesday.

He co-authored the book with Prof Zia Rahman, chairman of criminology department at Dhaka University.

The event was broadcast live on the official Facebook page of UPL, the publishing house, marking the fourth anniversary of militant attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital's Gulshan.

At the beginning of the event, participants observed a minute of silence to pay their respect to Latifur Rahman, chairman and chief executive of Transcom Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh, who passed away on Wednesday.

Monirul said only a few get involved in terrorism for the sake of ideology. "Ideology only works on people after they have dedicated themselves towards terrorist activities," he said. While there is no one reason to get involved in terrorism, research found people aged between 15 to 30 years are among the most vulnerable, said the CTTC chief.

"While working on the book, we found that terrorist offenders were also victims as they were dragged into militancy through false explanation of religion as they did not have proper knowledge…," said Monirul.

Militants used the support of online platforms in this regard, he added. "They first get to know someone through social media and only meet them when they are convinced...," the CTTC chief said.

The research also found terrorists are now using advanced technology and are even using the dark web and collecting virtual coins.

Regarding the necessity of publishing books, Monirul said they have upgraded research findings regarding the second phase of terrorism, especially when the international militant outfit Islamic State (IS) emerged with its activities in 2014.

"We wanted to give our work a shape and took the steps to publish a research oriented book," he added.

Addressing the occasion, Prof Zia Rahman gave an outline of the book.

He explained that the book is the first of its kind on empirical study of terrorists based in Bangladesh, focusing on the process of radicalisation they went through, the motivations they fostered, the ideology they held and pursued along with youth vulnerabilities which led them to the path of adopting violence.

The book was written based on information collected from 51 terrorist suspects, 14 family members, 11 law enforcement officials and 15 experts on various disciplines along with secondary data, according to authors.

Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations and director of the Center for Genocide Studies at DU, moderated the programme, while Humayun Kabir, former ambassador and vice president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, also spoke.