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| Bangladesh |
| Govt takes on terror socially, politically |
| 2009-08-24 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Recognising the fact that anti-militant drive is not enough to uproot the evil of extremism from the society, the government has launched a massive socio-political campaign, involving 14 different agencies, to educate people and closely monitor militant activities at the grassroots level. This campaign heavily involves the 3.5 lakh strong Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party (VDP) for the first time as the networks of the two agencies are spread even to the remotest parts of the country where neither Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) nor police have regular access. With the state minister for home affairs spearheading the drive, the government has taken up various innovative initiatives to make people aware about the destructive nature of extremism. The initiatives include holding campaigns, screening documentaries, training imams of mosques, organising anti-militancy campaigns at madrasas and others. Under the initiative imams will be trained to present sermons against militancy prior to Juma prayers. "This has already begun in Dhaka and some other parts of the country," said Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder. Another aspect of the drive is to involve unemployed youths in various development work and different trades through small loans. Religious educational institutions will be closely monitored. The drive is the culmination of initiatives by various agencies that have opined that armed drives against militancy is not enough to uproot or contain militant threats. Following a series of meetings since 2007, the Awami League government formed a high-powered committee on April 20 headed by the then state minister for home Sohel Taj. However, after holding two meetings the committee has remained inactive since Taj's resignation from the ministry. Now with Shamsul Haque Tuku taking charge as the state minister for home affairs, the committee resumed the drive through a meeting earlier this month. It has been decided that the committee will hold a meeting every month. Other members of the committee are secretaries of the ministries of home, education, law, religious affairs, social welfare, LGRD and cooperatives, and information, the inspector general of police, chiefs of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Bangladesh Rifles, Ansar and VDP, National Security Intelligence and Rapid Action Battalion and the director general of Prime Minister's Office. Each of these ministries and authorities has been given specific tasks. For instance, the religious affairs ministry will assign the Islamic Foundation to motivate imams against militancy while the LGRD ministry will discuss the issue of militancy at the meetings of district and upazila law and order committees. The foreign ministry, although not a part of the committee, has been given the task to brief and update the international communities, donors and development partners about the government's positive steps to eradicate militancy. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 I have decided to ignore postings like this. "Govt" tells me nothing about the post's content. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2009-08-24 09:20 |