Six years have passed since the current government decided to form a specialised law enforcement unit, particularly to combat militancy and terrorist activities in the country. But it is yet to be materialised due to various reasons.
Process of launching the unit is at final stage, said a senior Home Ministry official. The government is now pondering on selecting the leading agency and the unit’s officers.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that they were holding meetings to decide on the officials for the counter terrorism unit – whether to take officers from RAB or police or DB, or from the upcoming recruitment where some 50,000 posts would be filled for the police force.
“We have also taken some decisions that include improving skills of the law enforcers. It will be a continues process,” the minister told the Dhaka Tribune.
So far, it has been decided that the unit will be led by an officer of additional inspector general rank, and that initially it may have around 800 members.
Presently, police’s Detective Branch and Rapid Action Battalion are working to combat militancy and organised crimes. Moreover, the government last year formed a task force with representatives of the ministries concerned and the law enforcement agencies.
The ministry officials fear that if the senior officials of DB or RAB are transferred to the new unit, those agencies would become weak.
The urgency for establishing the unit looms as nearly a dozen of war crimes trial campaigners and secular activists have been hacked to death while over 40 noted personalities threatened with death by the militants since 2013.
Moreover, the law enforcers have arrested a number of leaders and followers of banned militant groups that are trying to regroup and of new organisations that are coming into being across the country with an aim to turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state and establish Shariah law through armed jihad.
Militant activities were first seen in the country with the formal launching of Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh (HujiB) on April 30, 1992 through a press conference at National Press Club. Most of its founding leaders and activists are now in jail in various cases of murder and blasts. It was banned on October 17, 2005.
Five other militant organisations were banned between 2003 and 2015.
Rahamatul Monim, additional secretary of the Home Ministry, thinks that both the police and the RAB are doing good in containing militant activities. So its officers should not be shifted to the anti-militancy unit.
The issue of forming the unit was first raised after the Twin Tower blasts on September 11, 2001 in New York. After the blasts, the United Nations too recommended that Bangladesh government form a special unit as militant activities have spread across the country.
The formal decision of creating the unit was finally taken in 2009. Then additional inspector general of police, also the present IGP, AKM Shahidul Haque, at a discussion in 2011 first proposed to from the unit.
Later, the planing and research department of the Police Headquarters, after completing research, submitted a proposal to the Home Ministry on August 23, 2011.
The ministry revised the proposal a number of times. It reduced the number of posts from 962 to 793, and approved 440 vehicles.
But there has been no update on the matter since 2012.
DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said that it would be easier for the law enforcers to tackle militant activities if the specialised unit was formed.
“The militants are now using sleeper cells for which they cannot be traced and arrested easily. Moreover, they are using fake names and forming new groups with members from the banned organisations and fresh recruits through online. They are planning attacks following the styles of international terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State,” he added.
Security expert Maj Gen (retd) Abdur Rashid has observed that Bangladesh is in need for such a unit with expertise in IT, bomb-making technology and militant activities. There must be a research team too.
Militants change their locations, and planning and execution style very frequently, he said. “Because of absence of such a force and lack of experience of the officials concerned, the police force could not solve many cases involving militants,” he observed.
