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German envoy hints at fanatics' link to bomb attacks

Moudud dismisses such possibility

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
German Ambassador to Bangladesh Dietrich Andreach said extremist or fundamentalist groups might be behind the spate of recent bomb attacks in the country.
"The series of bomb attacks in the recent years have been against institutions and parties at events, but no extremist or fundamentalist group were targetted, which suggests that the extremist or fundamentalist groups might have been behind the attacks," said the German envoy in his address as a special guest in the seminar 'Religious Militancy and Security in South Asia' jointly organised by Bangladesh Institute of
International and Strategic Studies (Biiss) and the German Embassy in Dhaka.
Refuting the statement of German Ambassador, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed said, "Findings of the judicial commission probe into the August 21 grenade attacks on the Awami League (AL) rally show that no religious groups were involved in it. It is not right to bring religion into this matter."
He was addressing the seminar as the chief guest.
The German envoy said, "We should explore the possibility that knowingly or unknowingly we are supporting religious militancy or
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religions are being used in politics."
Citing recent attacks on the Ahmadiyya community, protests against womens' sports, existence of the Vested Property Act, Andreas termed these incidents indicators of religious militancy in different forms, and said the government needs to address the issues.
Moudud in his statement said, "Although fundamentalism and terrorism may exist in Bangladesh, it's too limited in scope and size to elicit fear."
"The situation in India and Pakistan is much worse and absence of serious communal violence in Bangladesh in the aftermath of the Gujarat incident testifies to its tolerance," he said, adding, "The recent attack on the Ahmadiyya sect is an aberration in Bangladesh's long tradition as a moderate and tolerant Muslim state."
"We should practice more tolerance," Moudud said, adding that our prime focus should be on achievements made in the development of Bangladesh, especially in the education and health sectors.
On Iraq War, the law minister said it is a war against terrorism, not Islam.
The four-day conference on the current realities of religious militancy and its link with nationalism and terrorism in different countries in the region and possible ways to address the problem, ended yesterday.