Minister: No Islamic State in Bangladesh

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam said on Tuesday that Islamic State (IS) and other international terror outfits did not exist in Bangladesh. "The terror attacks faced by the country in recent years were conducted by homegrown outfits," the minister said while addressing the closing session of the three-day Chiefs of Police Conference at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka, as quoted by UNB. The state minister said there was no evidence to support the claim that homegrown militant outfits had links with Islamic State or other international militant outfits. "But we need to remain alert, as global terrorist outfits may try to recruit cadres or influence the local outfits, particularly through internet-based communications," he said. Representatives of police forces from Afghanistan, Australia, Bhutan, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam participated in the Chiefs of Police Conference Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka TribuneThe minister added that the government had taken steps to boost cooperation with neighbouring countries to tackle the issue. "We believe that effective and functional cooperation between neighbouring countries can be the best answer to terrorism and other transnational crimes," he said. Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque chaired the closing session of the Chiefs of Police Conference of South Asia and Neighbouring Countries on "Regional Cooperation in Curbing Violent Extremism and Transnational Crime."

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Representatives of police forces from Afghanistan, Australia, Bhutan, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam participated in the conference. Furthermore, senior officials of Interpol, Facebook, American IGCI and FBI, and ASEANPOL and the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) were also present.