Govt to revive social campaign against militancy
Govt to revive social campaign against militancy
The government today decided to reinvigorate its socio-cultural and religious campaign to fight militancy by involving cross-section of people.
“We discussed how to tackle militancy other than using force. We laid more importance on creating mass awareness against the evils of it,” State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan said after chairing a meeting of the National Committee on Militancy Resistance and Prevention at the ministry.
He said the awareness building drive will be carried out in gatherings like mosques, schools, colleges and other socio-cultural programmes across the country.
The decision came against the backdrop of government’s reliance on law enforcers to combat the militancy.
Identifying militancy a social problem, the Awami League government launched the socio-political and religious campaign in 2009, considering that such a campaign to make people aware of the scourge of the militancy would be more effective. It was also considered that the menace could not be uprooted only by using forces like Rab and police.
However, the campaign lost its ground due to lack of political will. Even meeting of the committee was not held regularly as the today’s meeting took place after 10 months although it was supposed to be held every three months.
The state minister, who heads the committee, said they were going to intensify the campaign.
“We will focus on the educational institutes, especially the private universities where students are being diverted various ways towards the militancy. We have identified the places,” he told the reporters.
He said the campaign will be carried out using different news media but denied the rising in militant activities in the country in recent times.