Fighting terror tops agenda

In the wake of two grisly militant attacks and amid fear of further strikes, the threat of terrorism will dominate the four-day annual conference of deputy commissioners set to begin tomorrow.    

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is scheduled to inaugurate the conference at her office, is expected to give directives to the DCs about the implementation of government decisions, policies and measures, including those to combat militancy.

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Ministers will address the DCs of the 64 districts in separate sessions, some of them focusing on militancy and motivation campaigns against the threat the country faces.

Talking to The Daily Star, several DCs yesterday said they would offer some recommendations and also seek guidelines as to how the local administration can tackle terror activities.

"We will give specific directives to them [DCs] for putting up a resistance against militancy by engaging people of all walks life,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told this newspaper in the evening.

"We will also urge them to show zero tolerance for any sort of criminal activities," he added. 

Earlier in the day, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told reporters at his office that the issue of terrorism could dominate the conference against the backdrop of two back-to-back terrorist attacks in Dhaka and Kishoreganj.

"We must have specific guidelines in the conference about how to resist militancy by engaging public representatives, civil society members and the public," said a DC from Dhaka Division, asking not to be named.

Another DC, from Rajshahi Division, said they were also expecting directives from the government high-ups about security of foreigners living at district levels.

On July 1, Bangladesh witnessed its deadliest terror attack when gunmen raided a Gulshan cafe, killing 20 hostages, 17 of them foreigners, and two police officers during a 12-hour siege.

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Bangladeshi-American and one Indian were among the dead.

The first hostage situation in the country ended when army commandos stormed the restaurant on the morning of June 2, killing five attackers and one employee of the cafe who, law enforcers claim, was a suspect. His family denies this.

The second attack came on July 7, the Eid day, when militants killed two police constables at a security checkpoint near Sholakia Eidgah.

One woman was killed when hit by stray bullets in her home nearby, while police shot and killed a suspected attacker.

More than a dozen others, including six cops, were wounded in the gun, knife and bomb attacks.

Terror group Islamic State said it carried out the July 1 attack, but the government dismissed the claim and blamed the banned militant outfit JMB for it.

The two attacks came following a string of targeted attacks for the last three years. Since February 2013, suspected militants have been targeting secular activists, writers, bloggers, publishers, university professors, LGBT activists and members of minority communities such as Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Shia Muslims in the Sunni-majority country.

IS and Ansar Al Islam, which claims to the local chapter of al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), took credit for many of these attacks.

The government maintains IS has no presence in the country.

However, since the July 1 and the Eid day attacks, panic has gripped people, and the PM has urged all to remain alert as she feared further attacks. 

Law enforcement agencies have stepped up security and kept hunting masterminds of the two attacks and nabbing suspected militants.

The Rapid Action Battalion has released a list of 262 missing people and police suspect some 100 of them have links with terror groups.

The government has also launched a counter-motivation campaign to prevent youths from being brainwashed by any militant outfits.

The DC conference comes against this background.

DCs are the heads of district administration and also the focal points of implementing all government decisions.

Some DCs in their written proposals sent to the Cabinet Division recommended installing CCTVs in all important establishments at district levels.

Earlier in 2013, the government formed anti-terror committees in district, upazila and union levels. But recent media reports said the committees remain dysfunctional in almost all districts. 

 The cabinet secretary said after the recent attacks, DCs were asked to remain alert and make the committees functional.

Other issues on the conference agenda include strengthening local government institutions, gearing up disaster management, relief and rehabilitation activities, use of ICT and e-governance and improvement of the quality of education, healthcare and family welfare.

Divisional commissioners and DCs are expected to present 336 suggestions and recommendations on 39 ministries to be discussed at the conference, according to documents on the conference.

MORE POWERS FOR EXECUTIVE MAGISTRATES

A number of DCs recommended increasing the powers of executive magistrates by empowering them to issue affidavits. Now only judicial magistrates can do that.

They also want the government to appoint lawyers to defend the verdicts of the mobile courts during the disposal of the appeals made by convicted persons.

The DC of Cox's Bazar proposed setting up barbed fences on Bangladesh-Myanmar border to prevent Rohingya people from illegally entering Bangladesh.

The DC also wants that the government hand over to the Coast Guard the responsibility to monitor the maritime boundary from the Naf river to Shah Porir Dweep.