Bangladesh govt continues to deny have terrorists link: US

Bangladesh govt continues to deny have terrorists link: US

As in prior years, the Bangladesh government has denied that Bangladesh-based terrorists have meaningful ties to transnational terror groups, including ISIS or AQIS, said the Country Report on Terrorism, says US state department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2020 published on Thursday.

In 2020 there were three specific terrorist incidents, resulting in no deaths, said the report posted on the US state department website.  

US secretary of state Antony J Blinken in a statement on Thursday said that the Department of State issued the 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism, which provides a detailed look at the counterterrorism environment in 2020, fulfilling an important Congressional mandate.

 

As in prior years, the Bangladesh government has denied that Bangladesh-based terrorists have meaningful ties to transnational terror groups, including ISIS or AQIS, said the Country Report on Terrorism.

An appeal is pending with the Supreme Court against Special Tribunal’s 2019 sentencing of seven individuals to death for the 2016 Holey Artisan Bakery attack, in which attackers claiming allegiance to ISIS killed 20 people, including a US citizen.  Ongoing deficits in Bangladesh’s judicial system, magnified by the constraints of operating during pandemic, contribute to a decade-long backlog of terrorism cases and a conviction rate estimated at less than 15 per cent., according to the report.

It said that terrorist attacks in 2020 included an improvised explosive device blast near a police box in Chattogramon February 28, 2020 that injured two police and one civilian and a crude bomb attack on a Hindu temple in  Naogaon on July 31 that caused no casualties, said the report, adding that ISIS claimed responsibility for both the attacks.  

The report further said that in 2020, Bangladesh’s criminal justice system was still working to fully implement the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009.  The seven Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunals authorised under the Act adjudicated cases in 2020, including the 2015 murder of blogger and science writer Ananta Bijoy Das claimed by al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar Al-Islam.

 Although the Anti-Terrorism Act does not outlaw recruitment and travel in the furtherance of terrorism, the broad language of the act provides several mechanisms by which Bangladesh may implement UNSCR 2396 on addressing foreign terrorist fighters.  Despite lacking specific laws, Bangladesh arrested suspected foreign terrorist fighters or facilitators of such fighters on other charges under existing laws, said the report.

It said that Bangladesh cooperated with the United States to strengthen control of its borders and ports of entry.  The international community remains concerned about security procedures at  Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.  US-trained explosive detection K9 teams remain available to patrol the airport but are not a permanent presence.  Bangladesh actively shared law enforcement information with Interpol but does not have a dedicated terrorist Alert List.

The United States and Bangladesh continue to work on building Bangladesh’s technical capacity to develop a national-level Alert List of known or suspected terrorists, said the report.

Elements of the Bangladesh Police continued a campaign of arrests and raids against suspected extremists.  US government-trained investigators used actionable intelligence to prevent an attack at the Hazrat Shajalal Shrine in Sylhet.  Bangladesh law enforcement arrested six individuals in Sylhet who were linked to the Naogaon and Chattogram attacks, the report said.

Bangladesh is a member and outgoing co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Group On Money Laundering, also known as APG and the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit is a member of the Egmont Group, the report said, adding that there were no significant updates in 2020.