Terrorists looking for opportunity to strike back: FM

Mentioning the incidents like 10-truck arms haul and the Aug 21 grenade attack on Awami League rally, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has said the forces that were active at the time are still looking for every possible opportunity to strike back. "The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina remains committed that there will be no recurrence of such incidents under our watch," the Foreign Minister said while addressing the inaugural session of a workshop on Capacity Building for the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons and the Arms Trade Treaty at UNCLOS conference room on Wednesday. He said two events shook the nation – on April 1 in 2004 people received the news of huge arms and ammunition recovery from 10 trucks while being unloaded at the jetty of the Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited. Then a few months later, on August 21, at the Bangabandhu Avenue, there was the fatal grenade attack at the Awami League rally targeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, then the Leader of the Opposition. He said they have seen clear manifestation of that during their indiscriminate acts of terror and violence during the last two years. As a sign of their cruel ingenuity, they have now added petrol bombs and molotov cocktails to their arsenal. "Both events were followed by systematic denial and farcical investigations held by the Government of the day." The Foreign Minister said the defeated forces that had taken part in the mayhem of our intellectuals, freedom fighters and innocent civilians in 1971 are still waiting to settle their scores. He said all need to remain vigilant about the illicit transfer and proliferation of small arms, light weapons and related ammunition inside and through our territory. "We must ensure that Bangladesh is not used as a possible conduit or sanctuary for the billion dollar international trade in illicit arms and ammunition with the growing involvement of non-state actors." He mentioned that despite our decisive strides in the right direction, they witness the continued and perhaps growing use of small arms in criminal activities, including in the private sphere. According to some estimates, around 11 - 15% of crimes committed in Bangladesh involve the use of small arms. “We must work at reversing this trend before it assumes further threatening proportions,” the minister said. As a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty, and being the first South Asian country to do so, all should consider making the necessary investments in developing an enabling legal regime and acquiring state-of-the-art arms marking and tracing technologies to enable to consider eventual accession to the instrument. He said the investments we make in our national security interest are also likely to prove useful in the regional and international contexts, as evident from our lead contribution to UN peacekeeping operations. The Foreign Minister encouraged the participants to make the best use of this event and help chart a way forward to do our part in the global fight against the scourge of illicit arms and weapons. United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Robert D Watkins, Director, UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, Dr Yuriy Kryvonos and Additional Foreign Secretary Ambassador Mizanur Rahman were also present, according to UNB.