The terrorism situation improved in Bangladesh in the last two years but due to election, it might get worse, feared experts.
According to global think-tank Institute for Economics and Peace, Bangladesh ranked 25 in 2018 which was 21 last year.
Security analyst former major general Abdur Rashid told Bangla Tribune, “Due to strong action taken by the government, not many terrorism related incident occurred in the country.”
In Bangladesh, terrorism is driven by internal dynamics of politics and there is a fear that due to election, such incidents might rise, he said.
“I hope that the government will take necessary action to avoid any election-related terrorism activity,” he said.
The expert said terrorists mainly get finance from the Middle East and Diaspora.
“Some Middle East-based charity organizations provide funds to these terrorists,” he said adding, “Radical Diaspora also collect donation and send it to the country.”
He said the present government has taken ‘zero tolerance’ position towards terrorism and the law enforcing agencies conducted over 35 operations to wipe out terrorists.
Almost all the top leaders were killed or apprehended and at present there is a leadership vacuum persists among the terrorist outfits, he said.
He also gives credit to mass awareness against terrorism.
Former defence attache to Myanmar former major general Md Shahidul Haque told Bangla Tribune, “Our society is very tolerant and no ISIS outfit exists in Bangladesh.”
He also said terrorism in Bangladesh is closely linked with politics.
The Institute for Economics and Peace in its latest Global Terrorism Index 2018 report said Bangladesh scored 5.697 out of 10-scale. It scored 6.181 last year. The less one scores, the better the terrorism situation is.
The situation is worse in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, United States and Thailand than in Bangladesh, the report said.
The four terrorist groups responsible for the most deaths were the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Taliban, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram, it added.