Recruiters offering packages online to radicalise youths: Monirul
He was addressing a press conference arranged to mark the inauguration of “Dhaka Peace Talk”
Terrorist recruiters are offering attractive packages online in an attempt to radicalise young people, said Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit chief Monirul Islam today.
"Youths aged between 25 and 30 years are getting involved in terrorism by watching different videos aimed at radicalising their mind," Monirul, also an additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said.
He was addressing a press conference arranged to mark the inauguration of "Dhaka Peace Talk" in the media and public relations centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
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The programme has been organised by the Centre for Social Advocacy and Research Foundation in association with the United States Agency for International Development.
"Those who are devoid of the sense of patriotism, responsibility towards society and the people, ideology, tolerance and understanding of reality are being radicalised," Monirul said in reply to a query about radicalisation in the aftermath of the Holey Artisan attack.
In response to another question, he said, "More anti-terrorism drives are being conducted following the Holey Artisan tragedy. We need to step up the number of drives. We also need to create an antibody to stop terrorism."
About the reasons for radicalisation, Executive Director of the Centre for Social Advocacy and Research Foundation Shabnam Aziz said, "Research has not found any specific reasons for fanaticism. Youths are being radicalised in different situations. We cannot put the reasons on any specific frame."
"It is not possible for any force, organisation and person to prevent terrorism completely. It is a complex and long-term process. Hence, people from all walks of life need to come forward and work in collaboration to prevent terrorism," said Shabnam, also an associate professor of mass communication and journalism at the University of Dhaka.
She argued that religion is not the sole factor for the rise in extremism.
"Different factors such as social, political, economic inequality and values are associated with it. Our aim is to do research on why the youths get involved in fanaticism."
Shabnam said families should teach young people values in order to prevent radicalisation.
She said both the society and the state have roles in preventing radicalisation.
"The Centre for Social Advocacy and Research Foundation wants to play a role in building awareness of the problem. We want to identify the reasons and find out a solution," the academic said.
"The Centre for Social Advocacy and Research Foundation is a platform for strategic think tanks. It is an organisation of researchers, academicians of different universities and journalists. It has a plan to form a 36-member panel. It will organise 12 roundtable discussions in Dhaka and conduct 12 separate researches," she added.
