Police rounding up a top militant

There is also the necessity, for the success of the law enforcing agencies, to sensitise the public on the need to be watchful and cautious and seek the help of the police should they see anyone suspiciously moving about or have any information of useful and revealing nature of a deadly plot. People's awareness and readywit and action, as were noticed in Khulna, provide a good example of how the police can benefit from participation of the common man in the fight against extremists.

A redeeming feature of the sad episode of these bombings that have taken so many innocent lives so far, is that, a large number of the militant cadres have been arrested. These people are valuable sources of information that ought to lead to the masterminds. Remember, we are yet to track down the masterminds, and it is worrisome that they are repeatedly escaping the dragnet quite successfully. There is urgent need for the intelligence agencies to gear up their human intelligence, capability in order that they can get real time information. This is all the more urgent given the report that one of the masterminds visited Bogra very recently, unbeknownst to the police.

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To tackle the menace there is no alternative but to haul up the two masterminds -- so-called Bangla Bhai and Shaikh Abdur Rahman -- that are known to be directing the extremist operations. We are hopeful that nabbing of top-notch militant leaders will help not only raise public confidence and morale, it will also keep up the momentum of action against these elements till the masterminds are hauled up into the dragnet.