A menacing agenda bares teeth again

As always, our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the victims, and we call on the government to leave no stone unturned in its efforts to bring the perpetrators of such a senseless act of terror to justice.

This tragedy serves to underscore that the security situation in the country is very far from under control and that terrorists remain not only at large but sufficiently emboldened and organised as to be able to carry out such attacks.

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It should be noted that one peculiarity of many of the terrorist attacks that Bangladesh has suffered is that they have targeted judges and the legal apparatus. Elsewhere around the world, the targets for such attacks are more typically building, infrastructure, or everyday crowds of people, so as to sow the seeds of terror far and wide with the message that no one is safe.

In Bangladesh, while we have had no shortage of such attacks, these have also come hand in hand with attacks aimed specifically at the judiciary. In other words, the terrorists are hitting at the core of the nation's democratic, secular ethos and values. The idea, perhaps, is to replace our venerable legal system with one based on obscurantist interpretations of religious law. The terrorists can, therefore, be seen to be working towards the isolation of Bangladesh from the rest of the world.

This latest atrocity points to the viciousness of their agenda and the callousness with which they can take innocent lives. Worse still is the implication that they can pick and choose the time, date, and venue of their attacks with impunity.

The terrorists must be fought with all we have. There can be no peaceful co-existence with them. We have been grimly reminded that the government must take up the challenge before it is too late.