Create awareness to resist terror

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked her cabinet colleagues to take measures to create social awareness for resisting terrorism in the country.

At the weekly cabinet meeting, she advised them to engage people from all walks of life in the campaign against militancy and misinterpretation of religion.

She told the ministers to give instructions to all officials and staff at the secretariat so that they can play due role in tackling terrorism and preventing the misuse of Islam.

Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League, directed them to form anti-militancy committees from district to grassroots levels, several ministers present at the meeting told The Daily Star.

The premier said all lawmakers must tell people in their constituencies to keep a close watch on strangers in their localities and inform police about the missing people, especially youths.

The ministers have to be vocal about the misinterpretation of religion and the evils of terrorism, she added.

Hasina's directives came in the wake of two back-to-back militant attacks at a restaurant in the capital's Gulshan on July 1 and the Eid congregation in Sholakia of Kishoreganj on July 7. Twenty-five people, including 17 foreign nationals and four police personnel, were killed in the two incidents. 

It was the first cabinet meeting after the attacks. 

Hasina told her cabinet colleagues that she had monitored the Gulshan incident closely.

Making mentions of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels and Istanbul, the PM lauded the role of Bangladesh's law enforcement and security agencies for ending the Gulshan siege in the shortest possible time.

She said many developed countries couldn't handle such a situation the way Bangladesh did.

Expressing annoyance at the role of some private TV channels covering the incident, she said that because of those TV stations' live coverage of the incident, the militants holed up in the restaurant were able to see on television what strategies the law enforcers were taking.

Referring to different countries' offer of assistance to combat terrorism, she said Dhaka would take whatever help necessary for the country.

A minister told the meeting that private educational institutions should be put under surveillance as some of the attackers were found to be students of private institutions.

Home ministry sources said the home and education ministries would hold a meeting with the owners, teachers and student representatives of all private universities to discuss the militancy issue.

AL, MPS MAKE MOVE

The Daily Star talked to seven lawmakers and two AL leaders to know the steps the ruling party and lawmakers have taken to fight militancy.

The AL leaders said the party already issued letters to all its district units, asking their leaders to set up anti-militancy committees immediately.

The local leaders were advised to have an eminent person as the head of each committee, AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif told The Daily Star last night.

The committees to be formed from district to village levels would be non-partisan and would involve people from all walks of life, he said.

On the MPs' role, the AL leader said all lawmakers must advise people in their constituencies to inform police if they see any suspicious person in their localities and also keep a close watch on their children so that they don't indulge in militancy.

“We are also giving speeches, urging people to be alert so that nobody is led down the wrong path through misinterpretation of religion,” said Hanif, an MP from Kushtia.

Fazle Hossain Badsha, Workers Party lawmaker from Rajshahi-2, said the anti-militancy committees in his constituency would visit every house and check whether any suspicious person is staying there.

“I will hold meetings with the imams of different mosques and ask them to speak against militancy during Juma prayers,” he said.

Jatiya Party MP from Nilphamari-4 Shawkat Chowdhury said he had already formed two committees comprising 101 AL and JP men each in two upazilas to carry out anti-militancy campaign in his constituency.

ASM Feroz, lawmaker from Patuakhali-2, said anti-militancy committees would be formed soon in his constituency and they would assist law enforcement agencies in identifying missing youths in the area.

The home ministry said police already started working to gather information about missing people across the country.

The AL-led 14-party alliance will soon hold rallies with the participation of guardians in the capital to make people aware of militancy, said the combine leaders.