Militants now active online for new recruits

Militant outfits in the country are using online platforms to recruit fresh members by offering lucrative packages, said police.

The recruiters are targeting youths with low mental strength, zero patriotism and minimum kindness, said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

The CTTC boss also said that youths who had no responsibility towards family and society were also at risk of being involved in violent extremism.

He made the remarks during the inauguration programme of Dhaka Peace Talk, an awareness raising programme funded by USAID, at DMP Media Centre.

Dhaka Peace Talk would be organised by Center for Social Advocacy and Research Foundation (CSARF) in association with DMP’s CTTC unit.

A total of 12 round table meetings would be held during the programme and those would be participated by 36 extremism prevention experts, youths and other stakeholders.

Highlighting the necessity of such programmes, the CTTC boss said programmes against terrorism that started taking place after Holey Artisan attack in 2016 lost its vigour over the years.

A united effort of law enforcers, civil society members, parents and teachers is a must to prevent the peril, he said.

“As terrorist activities are less frequent nowadays, many think that it has gone. But it actually has not. It [terrorism] is a real threat and persistent,” the police official said.

Monirul, however, said the risk of militant attacks in the country was low.

Stressing on youths’ engagement in the programme, the CTTC boss said people aged between 15 and 30 were prone to take part in violent extremism.

CSARF Executive Director Shabnam Azim said Dhaka Peace Talk would build a network through which all stakeholders, especially youths, would work as community ambassadors and spread awareness.

Founded in 2019 by a group of researchers, university teachers and career journalists; CSARF is a nonprofit think-tank in the country, specialising in social advocacy, research and security threat analysis.

CSARF has a memorandum of understanding with CTTC for preventing violent extremism activities.