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Govt's slumber over, finally

Initiatives to counter militancy ideologically set to resume

Staff Correspondent
After keeping them inactive for 10 months, the government yesterday decided to revitalise its socio-cultural and religion-based campaigns to fight militancy.
"We discussed how to tackle militancy without using force. We decided to place more importance on mass awareness against the evil," said State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan after chairing a meeting of the National Committee on Militancy Resistance and Prevention at his ministry.
He said the awareness building drive would be carried out at places like mosques, schools, colleges and other socio-cultural programmes across the country.
The state minister, who heads the committee, said the authorities were going to intensify the campaign. They would focus on educational institutions, especially private universities where students are being brainwashed.
"We have identified the places," he told the reporters.
Denying the rise of militancy in recent times, he said the campaign would be carried out through using the media.
When asked why the committee at every meeting discusses the same things, comes up with the same recommendations but never monitors whether the recommendations are being implemented, Kamal claimed that they were following up on their recommendations and getting positive results.
According to sources in the law enforcement and intelligence agencies, militancy has gained ground, especially in remote areas, due to the absence of a strong and effective campaign.
Identifying militancy as a social problem, the last Awami League government had launched the sociopolitical and religious campaigns in 2009, believing such campaigns would be more effective. It was also assumed that the menace of the militancy could not be uprooted with force only.
However, the campaign had lost its pace largely due to lack of political will.
Back then, the committee had come up with some innovative ideas, like training imams in giving sermons citing the evils of militancy before luma prayers. Islamic Foundation was training imams but there was no way to monitor whether imams were actually following
through.
Regular screenings of anti-militancy short films, infotainments, advertisements and documentaries on TV, at the educational institutions and public places were also not done due to lack of political will.
The education ministry had been asked to organise discussions on the impact of terrorism and militancy in all educational institutions. But that too did not happen.
The ministry was supposed to ensure that teachers delivered antimilitancy speeches at school assemblies. But it did not monitor whether it was being done.
The committee had decided to involve about 3.5 lakh members of Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party in the campaign as their network reached remote areas. But it could not utilise them in gathering information on militants or their activities.
The committee did not hold meetings regularly.
Yesterday's meeting was held after 10 months, even though the committee was supposed convene every three months.