Fighting terrorism

We endorse the Prime Minister's call for global unity against terrorism during her speech at the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly, and through this column, reinforce the urgent necessity for countries around the world to come together to confront extremism of all forms for a peaceful and tolerant world.  

Terrorism, particularly that propelled by religious extremism, straddles national boundaries; its convoluted sense of purpose has created the current state of unrest around the globe, causing untold pain and suffering to people, an overwhelming majority of whom are innocent civilians. As the PM highlights, terrorism cannot be combatted by countries individually. We need collective global efforts not only to identify and defuse looming terrorist threats, but also to address the multifaceted root causes of terrorism that induce people to engage in such destructive acts against humanity. 

Although Bangladesh, with the government's zero tolerance policy on extremism, has thus far played an outstanding role in combatting terrorism and extremism, we must not become too complacent, as there is a palpable presence of extremists in the country with transfrontial links. We must draft counter-extremist policies and strategies in line with countries that have dealt with similar problems in an effective manner, and develop internal resources to investigate terror attacks and stop them before they occur. 

At the same time, we must confront extremist ideologies that are cashing in on poverty and vulnerabilities of the people, and exploiting their religious sentiments. Intervention is needed at the grassroots level to counter erroneous interpretations of religion and to eradicate the threat of religious extremism.