It has now been seven years since the Holey Artisan attack left the world reeling and exposed the fact that even a nation as small as ours is not free from the ever-present threat of extremist militancy.
More importantly, it opened the nation's collective eyes to just how clandestine extremists can be in proliferating a society -- by targeting the jaded youth. While our law enforcement has done a commendable job in suppressing the threat of extremism from flaring up in any truly devastating fashion such as what we witnessed at Holey Artisan in 2016, the fight will never truly be over.
When it comes to combatting militancy, it pays to always be vigilant.
Since that tragic day, Bangladesh has become far more resilient and determined in rooting out extremists -- we have continued to fight against the forces of terror, and have moved forward and prospered as a nation. Of course, the threat of terror is ever-evolving, and it would behoove our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to not only keep up with that kind of escalation but surpass it.
While outfits such as the JMB and its more recent incarnations may be dormant in their activities, they have paved the way for many other, smaller outfits to emerge out of the shadows. While counter-terrorism operations are absolutely an integral part of suppressing militancy, we should remind ourselves of why some people are more prone to radicalization than others.
Factors such as economic desperation and lack of mental health care often lead average citizens to fall prey to false promises of higher meaning which leads them to carry out atrocities such as what we witnessed at Holey Artisan seven years ago. We must not only counsel extremists that we have managed to detain but also start becoming a more accepting society in general.
We must always be on the lookout for extremists and stay one step ahead of them.