India to support Bangladesh to counter terrorism: Home Minister

India is ready to extend all necessary support to Bangladesh not only in fighting against terrorism and violent extremism but also to all bilateral and multilateral areas.

"Now we are convinced that India, as a friendly country of Bangladesh, is ready to provide all assistance to Dhaka to face all challenges in various areas including countering terrorism and militancy," said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan here today.

Khan said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister assured him that India would not only remain with Bangladesh in its fight against terrorism, rather, it would provide all out support to Bangladesh to combat the menace.

Talking to BSS prior to his departure from New Delhi to Dhaka concluding his three-day India tour, the Bangladesh home minister categorically said that there was no existence of IS in Bangladesh although they are misguiding people in the name of such international militant group.

"They (militants) all are home grown ... the militant activities which Bangladesh is facing in the recent times are the exposure of some local and international conspiracies to halt Bangladesh's ongoing progress.

Describing the Gulshan tragedy as a new dimension of terrorist attack, he said Bangladesh has faced militant activities in different forms and manifestation in the past. They included blast of bombs in 63 districts across the country at the same time, attack on judges, bomb blasts in courts and cultural functions.

"In the past, we have witnessed emergence of militant organization like JMB (Jama'atul Mujahedeen, Bangladesh) and Huji (Harkatul Jihad) whose activities were encouraged and supported by the then state machineries," he added.

Apart from this, Khan said the JMB, Huji and other terrorist organizations which are active in Bangladesh are actually operated by the leaders of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.

When we launched anti-terrorism drive on a large scale, then they were terrorizing the country by killing people and conducting arson attacks on moving vehicles in Dhaka to foil the ongoing trial against the perpetrators who were accused in the crime against humanity during the country's Great War of Liberation in 1971, he added.

The home minister said as part of their deep-rooted conspiracies, they killed an Italian citizen and a Japanese development worker to tarnish the country's image abroad.

Not only that they also hacked 35 people to death belonging to minority communities during the period in a bid to destabilise the country and blacken Bangladesh's thousand year's glory of communal harmony, he said.

"The style of such attacks had got a new dimension when the law enforcement agencies became active to take the culprits to book with the help of people," he said adding that the main objective of the terrorists is to turn Bangladesh into an "ineffective" country.

Responding to a question, Khan said the government is forming anti-terrorism committees in each village across the country involving people from walks of life to counter terrorism and violent extremism.

"People are now united to supplement the government's efforts to root out terrorism and militancy from the country".

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan arrived here on July 27 to have bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on various issues, especially focusing on current issues of terrorism and violent extremism.

Senior Secretary to the Home Affairs Ministry Mozammel Haque Khan, Inspector General of Police Shahidul Haque, DG of Bangladesh Coast Guard Real Admiral Aurangazeb Chowdhury, DG of BGB Maj. Gen. Aziz Ahmed and senior other government officials accompanied the minister.

During his visit, the Bangladesh home minister also called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the Premier expressed India's firm commitment to stand by Bangladesh the way it stood by the people of the next door neighbor during the 1971 Liberation War.

Source: BSS