Abdus Sobhan Sikder
Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration
Government of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Position on Terrorism
Bangladesh denounces terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Bangladesh believes that a terrorist must be identified as a terrorist only, irrespective of his or her color, creed and religion. Bangladesh condemns all acts of terrorism in the name of Islam or any values and political ethics and pursues actively with international community to eliminate terrorism.
Bangladesh Standpoint on Acts of Terrorism
Clearly, terrorist threats posed by Islamic Militant Groups have surpassed similar threats from other sources in recent times. In addition to these homegrown terrorist threats, there are many terrorist and insurgent groups operating in the geographical vicinity of the country that constitute perpetual threat to Bangladesh.All major terrorist groups operating in Bangladesh are homegrown. However, all types of terrorist groups namely the leftists, the insurgents and the Islamic militants have cross border link in terms of securing arms and ammunition.
Almost all terrorist and insurgent groups regardless of their ideological affiliations are involved in organized crimes like smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal arms sale, trafficking in persons, extortion, kidnapping, toll collection and killing;There is no conclusive evidence to suggest that Islamic militant groups in Bangladesh are linked with the global terrorist network. However, their ideological link with international terrorist groups cannot be ruled out.Although there is no empirical evidence suggesting that Madrassa students are particularly susceptible to terrorist recruitment, the general perception is that some of them can be more easily motivated to serve a militant cause.
Bangladesh Approaches on Countering Terrorism
Bangladesh condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
- No act of terrorism shall be condoned because of their circumstances, method or objective. In other words, there will be no distinction between good and bad terrorists – a terrorist must be identified as a terrorist only, irrespective of his or her race, colour, creed or religion.
The State will employ every means to fight terrorists and their organizations through on-going, continuous law enforcement actions.
- Undertake constant law enforcement action to thwart acts of terror, capture and prosecute terrorists, and dismantle terrorist organizations.
- Use law enforcement forces as the primary tool to fight terrorism, but deploy armed forces to meet exigencies of the situation.
- Create necessary institutions and build capacities within the law enforcement community as well as the armed forces to detect and defeat terrorists.
- Enact suitable laws to effectively fight terrorism and terror financing.
The state will take necessary long-term measures to address the underlying conditions that terrorist tend to exploit
- Encourage participation of all sections of the population in the mainstream political life to end political alienation. To this end, strengthening of local government institutions to ensure participation of grassroots level population has been a priority.
- Pursue massive socio-economic development programs to address poverty and economic disparity.
- Pursue ‘Motivational Measures’ in order to stop abuse of religion as a pretext for undertaking acts of terror.
- Reform Madrassa education system to bring into conformity with the modern education system. To this end, the ongoing madrassa education reform measures will be reinvigorated.
- Pursue a policy of peaceful settlement of international disputes at regional and international levels to address perceived or real injustice suffered by any particular group of people.
- Promote inter-faith and inter-culture dialogue.
The state will cooperate with the international community to effectively fight global terrorism. To this end,
- Work closely with the international community to develop and implement global standards to combat terrorism and terrorist financing.
- Deny transit, sanctuary, or safe haven to international terrorist groups.
- Encourage mutual legal assistance arrangements with friendly countries to share information and intelligence needed to fight international terrorism. Such arrangements will be arrived at through signing of agreements/MOUs based on the principle of reciprocity and respect for sovereign equality and territorial integrity of each party.
- Work with the United Nations system to develop an agreed definition of terrorism and adopt a comprehensive convention on terrorism.
- Enact necessary anti-terrorism laws to strengthen our criminal justice system to adequately tackle terrorism domestically while meeting international standards.
The State will ensure proportionality and due legal process in its fight against terrorism. To this end,
- Apply a culture of legislative restraint so that no one is targeted wrongfully in the campaign against terrorism.
- Respond to terrorism proportionately and ensure the due process of law for terrorist suspects.
Bangladesh Government Measures on Counter Terrorism
The possibility of any infiltration of global terrorist networks into Bangladesh has culminated into the promulgation and adherence to separate legal and security measures in addition to the existing legal and security measures.
Legal and Institutional Measures:
Anti Terrorism Act 2009
The first of its kind Anti Terrorism Ordinance 2007 has been promulgated and come into force since June 2008. The Ordinance has been transformed into Act 2009 and presently the updated Act 2011 is being framed now. This has stipulated stringent measures in addition to the promoters of banned terrorist outfits, who may be prosecuted to face 2 to 7 years of rigorous prison terms. The Ordinance empowers Bangladesh Bank and legal procedures and keeps provision for extension of time frame of legal procedure for ensuring justice. The Ordinance has also empowered the role of the court to form Special Tribunals for speedy trial of the terrorists. The provision of mutual legal assistance under this Ordinance would expedite cases of extradition and broaden further cooperation with foreign countries on countering terrorism.
Cooperation with UN Agencies
Bangladesh worked with the delegation of Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) in June 2007 and reciprocated with respect to their observations and arbitration in fine-tuning the Counter Terrorism readiness of Bangladesh to the international levels. It has been evinced that Bangladesh came very close to the international standard on combating terrorism and extremism in all its manifestation as per the report of the UNCTED on Bangladesh’s counter terrorism preparedness.
Charity /NGO regulations
NGO Affairs Bureau plays a coordinating role with the Bangladesh Bank in monitoring NGO financing in Bangladesh. Under the Foreign Donations (voluntary Activities) regulation Ordinance 1978, the NGO Affairs Bureau has been vested with the power to audit and inspect accounts of the NGOs. Bangladesh Chartered Accountants Order 1973 gives NGO Affairs Bureau the power to audit all their accounts.
Bangladesh has closed the operation of Saudi Arabia-based charity al-Haramain Foundation and the Kuwait-based charity Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) for their alleged involvement in terrorist financing.
The Voluntary Social Welfare Organizations (Registration and Regulations) Ordinance, 1961 provides necessary legal provisions along with comprehensive institutional mechanism to monitor and regulate all such non-profit organizations (NPOs) financial operations.
Reform and Modernization of Madrassa Education System
Modernization of Madrassa education system and gradually bringing all Madrassas under Government's control are priority tasks for the Government. Some of the steps taken by the government to modernize Madrassa education system are:
- Introduction of science group in almost all Madrassas.
- Establishment of academic buildings of the Madrassas throughout country
- Distribution of Computers to increase computer literacy of the students
- Training of teachers through Bangladesh Madrassas Teachers Training Institute, Gazipur
- Improvement of syllabus and curriculum at all levels.
- Introduction of extra-curriculum activities of the students.
- The government is now pursuing a strict policy in giving affiliation to new Madrassas.
- Notably, USAID is working in Bangladesh to support modernization of Madrassa education system. Earlier, it offered some scholarships to promote the study of science in some of the Madrassas.
Border and Immigration Control
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), Coast-Guard, Passport and Immigration Department, Customs and Port Authorities work in combination with law enforcing and intelligence agencies in a systemic and organized manner to detect and deter illegal entry and exit of possible terrorists, illegal transfer of cash or arms/explosives. The inter agency cooperation has been the key to recent phenomenal successes of huge recovery of arms and ammunition caches across porous Bangladesh-India borders.
Motivational Campaign
Apart from the legal and law enforcement measures, the Government pursues innovative ‘Motivational Measures’ in order to stop abuse of religion as a pretext for undertaking such subversive activities. For example, advocacy materials like posters, leaflets decrying extremism have been prepared in consultation with eminent religious leaders. These are being disseminated through electronic and print media. During Friday Congregation, the Imams - in their address to the devotees - condemn such heinous crimes quoting from the Holy Quran and attempt to counter the arguments which those elements use in misguiding the people.
Regional and International Measures
i. Bangladesh was forthright on the compliance of UN Counter Terrorism efforts even before the September 11 attacks both at national and international levels. Bangladesh made serious efforts to comply with the UN Security Council Resolutions 1267, 1373, 1455 (regarding Al-Qaida and Taliban, and associated Individuals and Entities) and other relevant resolutions.
ii. Bangladesh participated at the signing ceremony of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime in Palermo in December 2000 in support to the process of elaboration of the international regime against terrorism and related crimes.
iii. In keeping with her commitment to the eventual elimination of terrorism in all its forms, earlier Bangladesh acceded to 13 out of 13 UN/International anti-terrorism Conventions /Protocols, for which the Government is examining proposed implementation measures and has sought assistance from UNODC.
iv. At the regional level, Bangladesh is a party to the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, signed in Kathmandu in 1987 and ratified by all SAARC countries including Bangladesh.
v. Counter-terrorism cooperation has become a primary focus of the BIMSTEC regional group to which Bangladesh is a member. A Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (JWG-CTTC) was formed at the Summit held in 2004 having four sub-groups on intelligence sharing; financing of terrorism; transnational crimes; and legal and law enforcement. A member country heads each group.
Bilateral Counter-terrorism Cooperation
With the US: Currently, Bangladesh-US counter-terrorism cooperation focuses on three areas: a) counter-terrorism capacity building through training and technical assistance; b) combating money laundering and financial crime; and c) strengthening border and immigration control. In addition, the US expects Bangladesh to join various US-led plurilateral initiatives such as Container Security Initiative (CSI), Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and the Megaports Initiative (MGI).
With the UK: In June 2006, British Government proposed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Bangladesh and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning Mutual Cooperation related to the Training of Bangladesh Government Personnel by United Kingdom Training Team in Bangladesh. The Armed Forces Division and the British High Commission in Dhaka are now engaged in the training on Counter Terrorism on specific areas under the [proposed] Counter Terrorism Training Assistance programme with the UK.
With Australia: An MOU between Bangladesh and Australia on Counter Terrorism Cooperation has already been signed which will engage in exchanging Counter Terrorism Cooperation thorough training and technical assistance.
With India: An Agreement for Mutual Cooperation between the Government of Bangladesh and the Government of the India for Preventing Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and Related Matters on 21 March 2006 including provisions for specific Nodal Agencies for Exchange of Information. Bangladesh and India are working closely to expand cooperation to fight terrorism. At the Home Secretary level meeting between Bangladesh and India are held regularly every year, where both sides agreed that terrorism posed a threat to both countries and that there was a need to cooperate closely to tackle this menace. The two countries also hold regular meeting between the heads of BDR and BSF. Currently, there are a number of terrorists and miscreants who are staying in India. Bangladesh has sought India's help for their return.
Actions In Pursuance Of Un Security Council Resolution 1267: On receipt of a communication from the Chairman of the UN Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999) concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and associated individuals and entities, the Government of Bangladesh promptly alerts and activates all concerned authorities including the Ministry of Home Affairs, Bangladesh Bank etc for necessary action. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates the inter-agency responses. We also receive feedback from the agencies concerned regarding the actions taken to comply with the provisions of the UNSC 1267. So far, we have received two inclusions in the 'consolidated list' of UNSC 1267 and Ministry of Home Affairs and Bangladesh Bank has been duly notified on these issues.
Conclusion
Bangladesh believes that the menace of terrorism cannot be fought in an isolated way by any single state; it is a fight that should be conducted globally - in a concerted manner. It could be reiterated that Bangladesh's commitment to fight terrorism is all out and holistic. We must use all necessary resources to fight the scourge of terrorism in order to save the lives and livelihoods of our citizens, to safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to ensure world peace and prosperity.