Bangladesh saw a decline in the number of terror attacks on its soil in 2017, but transnational terror groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) continued to pose a threat, says a new report on international terrorism released by the United States.
The report released by the US State Department on Wednesday lists three terrorist attacks in 2017 claimed by ISIS on Bangladesh soil, a decrease from 2016.
It marks Bangladesh government’s “zero-tolerance” policy towards terrorism but also cautions against ignoring the threat from transnational groups.
“While the Government of Bangladesh often attributed terrorist violence to local militants, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and ISIS together have claimed responsibility for nearly 40 attacks in Bangladesh since 2015,” says the report.
It says that Bangladesh’s lack of a publicly available strategy to counter violent extremism hinders sustained engagement with the United States and the international community.
It does, however, add: “Despite lacking laws specific to foreign terrorist fighters, Bangladesh arrested suspected foreign terrorist fighters or facilitators of such fighters on other charges under existing law.”
The report lauds Bangladesh’s efforts to further strengthen control of its borders and ports of entry but continues to express concern over security procedures at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
“Bangladesh shared law enforcement information with INTERPOL but does not have a dedicated terrorist watchlist,” it says, adding, “Bangladesh also does not have an interactive Advanced Passenger Information system”.
The other area of concern is the judicial sector which it calls “under-resourced for carrying out prosecutions and obtaining convictions in complex financial and material support (for terror related) cases”.
In South Asia, Afghanistan continued to experience aggressive and coordinated attacks by the Afghan Taliban, including the affiliated Haqqani Network (HQN) and other insurgent and terrorist groups.
“A number of these attacks were planned and launched from safe havens in Pakistan,” it says.
India, too, continued to experience attacks, including by Pakistan-based terrorist organizations as well as tribal and Maoist insurgents.
The report says that Pakistani military undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan, but it “did not take sufficient action against other externally focused groups such as Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2017, which continued to operate, train, organise, and fundraise in Pakistan”.
At the international level, while the report lists the successes of the US and its partners in combating ISIS, Al Qaeda and other such groups, it says that the terrorist landscape grew more complex in 2017.
“They have become more dispersed and clandestine, turning to the internet to inspire attacks by distant followers, and, as a result, have made themselves less susceptible to conventional military action,” it says, adding further, “the return or relocation of foreign terrorist fighters from the battlefield has contributed to a growing cadre of experienced, sophisticated, and connected terrorist networks, which can plan and execute terrorist attacks.”
The report calls Iran as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and holds it responsible for intensifying multiple conflicts and undermining the legitimate governments of, and U.S. interests in, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen.
“Iran and Hezbollah are emerging from the Syria conflict emboldened and with valuable battlefield experience that they seek to leverage across the globe,” it says.
The State Department’s annual Country Reports on Terrorism is submitted to the US Congress to help it with policy decisions on countering global terrorism.