National security council a must to fight terrorism

They also laid emphasis on strong political will, training up of law enforcement and intelligence agencies and zero tolerance to firearms trafficking.

The two-day seminar styled as 'A Strategy for Combating Terrorism in Bangladesh' was organised jointly by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) and British High Commission at BEI conference room in the city.

The seminar was held in nine sessions focussing on different aspects of terrorism.

Speaking at the concluding session, the speakers said confrontational politics contributes in many ways to terrorism which is largely home-grown, and the nation needs to unite to address the root causes of the menace that include poverty, unemployment, poor governance, injustice, illiteracy and corruption.

Apart from local measures, regional cooperation which is not up to the mark, needs to be boosted up, they added.

"Given political will, it is easier to combat terrorism in Bangladesh as situation is not as complex as in neighbouring countries that are fighting the menace," said CM Shafi Sami, a former diplomat who recently resigned from the post of adviser to caretaker government, adding that the government must be firm at this moment to handle the situation.

"Instead of taking media reports on militant activities in the northern part of the country seriously, the immediate-past government reacted angrily. It however initiated steps few months later after the militants banged to the fore, but much blood spilled in the meantime," he said.

The former secretary also called for stopping human rights violation saying terrorism is prompted by such violation.

Reaz Rahman, former adviser of foreign ministry, underscored the need for a multi-faceted fight against terrorism.

Saying that fundamentalism and extremism were alien term to people of this country, he stressed the need for a stringent law that may award death sentence to the patrons of the terrorists.

Detailing the steps taken by the immediate-past government, Reaz called for a durable framework to address the issue and a three-tier short, medium and long-term steps to fight terrorism successfully.

There was a deliberate attempt to prove Bangladesh as a den of terrorists, he said.

Presenting his paper, BIISS Research Director Dr A Rob Khan focused on the recommendations of the previous eight sessions.

BEI President Farooq Sobhan proposed for constituting the NSC with the prime minister (PM) as its head to work as the coordinating body in the battle against terrorism.

Ministers and secretaries for home and foreign affairs, heads of three services, chiefs of two intelligence agencies, principal secretary and an international affairs adviser will be the other members of the committee which may take suggestions from the civil society, he added.

Director of Counter Terrorism Bureau Brig Gen ATM Amin presented the keynote paper on 'Developing a counter-terrorism strategy for Bangladesh' with former parliament member Faruk Khan in the chair.

BIISS Research Fellow Neila Hussain Chowdhury was the key speaker on 'Curbing the proliferation of small arms, light weapons and explosives' with Maj Gen (Retd) Syed M Ibrahim in the chair.

Former minister of state for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury presided over a session styled 'The rule of law and good governance in curbing terrorism' with former inspector general of police Nurul Huda presenting the keynote paper.

Air Commodore (Retd) Ishfaq Ilahi presented a keynote paper on 'Religious motivation and social mobilisation in curbing terrorism' with Prof Syed Anwar Husain of Dhaka University presiding over the session.