Al Qaeda spectre

IT is indeed disconcerting that in a video titled 'From France to Bangladesh: The Dust Will Never Settle Down', Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent has claimed responsibility for the death of four Bangladeshi bloggers, including US-based Bangladeshi writer Avijit Roy. The contents of the images are a ghastly reminder that the global terror outfit has spread its tentacles in the region, especially after Al Qaeda supremo Ayman al Zawahiri's September 2014 speech in which he had declared the launch of the group's terror franchise in the Indian Subcontinent. 

If such targeted killings like that of Roy's are to be pre-empted, it is high time that we reinforced our intelligence to dismantle the home-spun sleeper cells and the group's local cohorts that, it seems, have been trying to become active. An enhanced use of human intelligence in this regard is pivotal; so is tracking down terrorist financing, which is crucial in the fight against terror groups that work across the border.  

While the government and the law enforcing agencies have taken some multi-pronged counter-terrorism measures, we believe that our policy on terror needs teeth. The engagement of religious leaders and scholars can be worthwhile, especially in initiating a nationwide deradicalisation drive. There should be convincing counter narratives of the extremists that would prevent recruitment to their ranks. Fighting terror on all fronts is all we need to be doing.