The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Leading global terrorism expert Dr Rohon Gunaratna yesterday said despite presence of some of the terrorist outfits are working here but the government and the people of the country do not have any support for them.

"This message should be properly conveyed to the West," said Gunaratna, currently the head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, at the launching of Bangladesh Centre for Terrorism Research (BCTR).

He said, potential threat of terrorism exposed Bangladesh to its risks requiring the South Asian nation to mobilise both security forces and non-military powers for its counter.

"Bangladesh faces a number of threats, but terrorism and extremism is the most serioust if the government and its partners do not fight it, it will grow the way it expanded in Pakistan and several other countries," Gunaratna said.

He said despite the dismantling of the outfits like Jamaatul Mujaheedeen Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkatul Jihad Bangladesh (HuJi-B) by the security forces but their "ideologies could not be countered yet".

"Designation of HuJi-B as a global terrorist by US is very important for Bangladesh," he said adding that the social campaign mobilising religious leaders and media were crucial to combat the militant elements.

BCTR chief major general (retd) ANM Muniruzzaman said, the centre was being launched with the collaborative efforts of specialized terrorism research centers in South East Asia, Europe and Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) to study terrorism and its threats in Bangladesh bringing together people from every relevant discipline and platforms.

Gunaratna, who authored books including famous Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, Terrorism in the Asia Pacific:

Threat and Response and The Changing Face of Terrorism, said the international community developed a wrong impression that Bangladesh was the haven of Islamist terrorists.

Replying to a question, Gunaratna said, JMB was a local group with radical Middle Eastern ideologies while HuJi-B was a Bangladesh-based international terrorist outfit group having most of its leaders being Bangladeshis, most of them having backgrounds of Afghan war against Soviet Union.

The HuJi-B, he said, received its initial funding from Al-Queda.

Muniruzzaman supplemented him saying definite evidence were found that HuJi-B had wide international links with regional outfits like Laskar-e-Tayeba, Joyshi Mohammad, Rohingya militants besides Al-Queda while US listed it as one of its 44 listed global terrorism groups.

Asked to clarify the term "terrorism", Gunaratna said, the outfits which carried out killings on civilians with a political motive were "terrorists". He said, in many cases the governments in a number of countries were found to be backing the terrorist outfits with shortsighted and short-term political goals or foreign policy objectives, which eventually proved extremely counterproductive.