New militant outfit busted

The law enforcement agencies deserve credit for the identification of a new militant outfit following arrest of three members of the outfit and one of its arms suppliers. According to the Rab, the outfit's armed wing is called Shaheed Hamja Brigade and consists of three groups, each comprising seven men.

In the course of their investigation, the law enforcers found that the militants had received trainings in classrooms of a madrasa and had been given militant training in a hilly area of Bankshali upazila on how to operate firearms, make explosives and avoid detection. Earlier in February, the law enforcers had discovered a militant training camp in Banshkhali and recovered laptops, memory cards and other audio-video materials used in training in classes.

While we applaud the efforts of law enforcements in apprehending this militant group, we remain deeply concerned about the spectre of militancy and extremist ideologies in the country, and the systematic way in which these militants are being recruited, brainwashed, trained with sophisticated technologies and provided with high calibre arms. We have reasons to believe that there may be more militant groups in the country that are evading detection of law enforcement agencies and operating in remote areas.

Questions remain as to who are the masterminds and financiers of these terrorist outfits, and what links, if any, they have with other local and international groups. Coordinated action is needed to identify the architects of these outfits as arrests of ground operatives will not be enough to deter the terrorists. The government must also take measures to root out and counter the extremist religious ideology propagated by these groups by sensitising the people against their insidious nature.