Mohammad Ali Sattar

Our cops are doing a commendable job. Few days back they have managed to finish off the alleged mastermind of the Gulshan café attack. Tamim Chowhdury, Rabbi and Tawsif were killed in a day light operation by the armed unit of the police in Narayanganj. The operation in Kalyanpur and other parts of the country is supposed to send a strong message of warning to the terror plotters and militants.
There has been sudden surge of terror acts and the response from the law enforcing troops has also been impressive. We have come to know the departments and units of the police who work on terror combating and containment issues.
Every day we are briefed by the chief of counter terrorism unit. They keep us informing about the new operations and background stories of the militants. They also tell us about the suspects who are on the run and the police efforts to nab them.
This is reassuring for the people who are genuinely concerned about the security situation. Latest discovery of Tamim’s hideout in Narayanganj is a shocker. Not only the land lord is in trouble, the entire locality is put into a discomforting situation. Sort of scary atmosphere descents on the area and this blanket of fear and concern will hardly evaporate.
Now for each and every residential area or outskirt townships this apprehension will be there. We shall not be surprised to learn and behold similar scenarios of block raids, arrests or gun battles and bullet ridden bodies of the alleged militants.
Along with the raids and under cover bursts by the strike forces, the government along with local representatives should immediately launch ‘terror prevention awareness programs’ and serve a strict warning notices residents of the areas not to indulge in any anti-social and anti state activity, to watch out for suspicious individuals and their actions, to inform the police of any  doubtful movements or events in the area.
There should be continuous surveillance and warnings for the militants asking them to surrender to law. All round vigilance and surveillance will automatically reduce the terror acts as the militants will find it tough to get shelter and plan things.
There ought to be a continuous vigilance programs across the country. Like economic infrastructure development, we should now have national plans for developing an anti – terrorism infrastructure to combat these malaises. Foremost task will be introducing peace education in schools and colleges. Peace instructions will help raise a peaceful generation over the next decade and forever.
Being complacent of NOT having IS or other global terror outfits here is not the answer. May be we really don’t have international terror groups in Bangladesh. But it is proven that our boys do have links with the international militant bodies. They have managed to get in touch with the masterminds abroad in different ways. Stories reveal how the ‘missing’ ones land up in those soils and turn themselves into hard core radicals.
Tamim Chowdhury is an instance of terror mastermind here. He came back from Canada and started recruiting young boys to radicalize them and launch killing operations from different parts of the country. More such revelation will surely bring to surface the deeds of the leaders who are masterminding these acts of killings.
So we do have recruiters and planners who are working undercover in different hide outs of the city and elsewhere. This is where we need strong vigilance and fool proof system at work to neutralize the militants and eventually uproot these elements from the society.
But then sometimes we need to re think our strategy to tame them. Instead of going for the kill and shooting them down (sometimes in cross fires), we need to take them to custody and gather vital information and then hand them over to law.
All this is an uphill task but not quite impossible.
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