Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Bangladesh for the first time is set to hold a three-day Chiefs of Police Conference of ‘South Asia and Neighbouring Countries’ in Dhaka on March 12-14 this year.
The theme of the conference titled on “Regional Cooperation in Curving Violent Extremism and Transnational Crime”, according to sources of Police Headquarters.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal will inaugurate the conference at Sonargaon Hotel, while Foreign Minister AH Mahmud Ali will be the chief guest in the concluding session, they said.
A total of 58 officers from police, law enforcement agencies, Interpol and international organizations along with 14 countries from South Asia would join the conference, they said.
Members of law enforcement agencies from Afghanistan, Australia, Bhutan, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, South Korea, Sri-Lanka and Vietnam would join the conference, said the Police Headquarters sources..
Bangladesh also invited the other South Asian nation, Pakistan, to the conference but it didn’t give any response, they added.
Besides, Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock, Facebook Trust and Safety Manager Vikrarm Lengeh, Asian Pole Executive Director Yohanes Agus Mulyono, IGCI (Interpol Global Complex for Innovation) Head of Protocol and Conference Sin Lee Chua, and Gray Barr, director of International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Programme, are supposed to attend the conference.
The conference may form a transnational crime unit (TCU) to share information about these issues linked to extremism, according to the concept paper of the conference.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque told reporters on Thursday that all types of necessary measures to make the conference successful have been taken.
The conference will arrange focusing on how to fight violent extremism, terrorism and organised crimes through cooperation between different nations, the IGP said.
It will help the government combat all sorts of crimes including violent extremism and transnational crimes, the police Chief said.
“We are expecting to develop a common strategy to combat transnational crime and violent extremism and form a common platform to enhance cooperation between chiefs of police of the region,” he said.
“The government took up the measure at a time when militancy has become a matter of grave concern with rising militant and terrorist attacks in recent years. Bangladesh faced the worst-ever terrorist attack at the highly secured diplomatic zone in the city’s Gulshan last year,” the IGP said.
“We would seek assistance from Stock in bringing back Lt Col SHMB Noor Chowhdury from Canada and Lt Col AM Rashed Chowdhury from the USA. Also we will request to track down other killers of Bangabandhu-Lt Col Shariful Hoque Dalim, Lt Col Abdur Rashid, Capt Abdul Mazed and Resalder Mosle Uddin-by forming a special taskforce,” Home Ministry sources said.
Besides, Indian chief of police will be asked to shut down illegal Phensedyl factories in India and Myanmar police chief to stop yaba factories set up near the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh, they said.
According to them, during talks with Myanmar, Bangladesh will also raise the issue of 13 Bangladeshis languishing in Myanmar jail from 2014. Myanmar authorities were informed of the matter on October 29 that year and then reminded of it in March next year but no response has yet been received from that side.
Bangladesh would also hold bilateral talks with Malaysia, Sri-Lanka and Brunei on the sideline of the conference.
Meanwhile, over seven hundred militants told the law enforcers in different custodies that they were involved with militant organizations being misguided by some leaders and activists of the radical outfits though online media mainly Facebook, the Police Headquarters sources said.
The law enforcing agencies have already invited the Facebook authorities to take part in the three-day South Asian Police’s Chiefs Conference scheduled to be held Dhaka on March 12, they said.
They Police had taken a decision they bound the FB authorities to take part in the programme with the help of International Police Organizations (Interpol), according to them.
Police will hold a meeting with the Facebook Trust and Safety Manager Vikrarm Lengeh, they said.
Bangladesh police will likely to submit some proposals to the FB to take necessary steps to curb militancy at home and abroad, they added.
Police will have discussed a way to share information about militants, and financial crime and offences related to terrorist financing, according to them.
They claimed that a number of Bangladeshis were radicalized by the FB after they had gone to Malaysia. Some of them are believed to have fled to Syria to join Islamic State.
