BSS :
Speakers at a meeting unanimously viewed that community support can be the best way of preventing violent extremism as its risks have gradually been rising due to multifarious reasons.
There are multifarious reasons and risk factors behind the violent extremism, so collective efforts of all the government and non-government organizations concerned have become crucial to combat the crimes collectively. The discussants came up with the observation recently while addressing a dialogue titled “Developing a National Action Plan on Preventing Violent Extremism for Bangladesh: A Multi Stakeholder Perspective”. Bangladesh Enterprise Institution (BEI) hosted the dialogue at Parjatan Motel conference hall in Rajshahi in association with Global Centre on Cooperative Security.
BEI President Humayun Kabir addressed the meeting as a focal person, while its Deputy Director Ashish Banik gave an overview on the topic during his multimedia presentation.
Former Chairman of Rajshahi Education Board Prof Tanbirul Alam, editor of daily Sonar Desh Akbarul Hassan Millat, assistant director of the department of social services Dr Abdullah Al Firoj, Prof Mustafizur Rahman from Rajshahi University and ward councilors of Rajshahi City Corporation Matiur Rahman, Abdus Sobhan and Tahera Khatun Mili also spoke.
The speakers opined that the young population is rapidly embracing social media through the internet and afflicted with the malaise of countering violent extremism, often through Facebook.
Finally, they recommended and suggested time-fitting strategies to restrict violent extremism activities through technologies that can be potentially implemented by the government by coordinating with international donor agencies and counter violence extremism practitioners.
Around 40 persons comprising public representatives, media personnel and members of the civil society took part in the dialogue and took part in its open discussion putting forward a set of recommendations on how to prevent the violent extremism.
