Law and Order Maintenance system and Countering Terrorism in Bangladesh

1
Law and Order Maintenance system and Countering
Terrorism in Bangladesh

• Abdus Sobhan Sikder
• Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration
• Government of Bangladesh

Civil Service College, Monday, 12 December 2011
2
Outline

• Law and Order
• Role of Law enforcement agencies
• Criminal justice system of the country
• Terrorism in Bangladesh and countering
  terrorism
• Difficulties encountered while taking measure

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Law and Order

• law and order refers to a political platform
  which supports a strict criminal justice system,
  especially in relation to violence and property
  crime, through harsher criminal penalties. These
  penalties may include longer terms of
  imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, and in some
  countries, capital punishment.
• Supporters of "law and order" argue that
  effective deterrence combined with incarceration
  is the most effective means of crime prevention.
  Opponents of law and order argue that a system of
  harsh criminal punishment is ultimately
  ineffective because it does not address
  underlying or systemic causes of crime.

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Law enforcement agencies

• Police (RAB, APBn, Railway Range, Metropolitan
  Police, Highway Police, Industrial Police)
• VISION
• To provide service to all citizens and make
  Bangladesh a better and safer place to live and
  work. MISSION
• To uphold the rule of law.
• To ensure safety and security of citizens
• To prevent and detect crime
• To bring offenders to justice
• To maintain peace and public order
• Forces in aid to Civil Power
• Ansar Village Defence Party (VDP)
• Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB)
• Coast Guard
• Bangladesh Army (under Sec. 128-131)

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Criminal Justice System
Constitution of Bangladesh
Supreme Court a. 94
Appellate division
High Court Division
Subordinate courts a. 114
Civil courts
Criminal courts
Courts/tribunals established by other laws
Courts constituted under Cr.P.C
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Criminal Judiciary
Courts/Tribunals established under other laws
Courts constituted under Cr.P.C.
District Magistrate

• Court of SJ, Addl SJ, Jt SJ
• Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate- CMM,
  ACMM, MM
• Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate-CJM, ACJM,
  1st, 2nd, 3rd class magistrates
• Executive Magistrates

Executive Magistrates Preventive cases, Law and
order, Mobile court, unlawful assembly Sec
107-110, 127-31, 133, 144, 145

• Special Power Act 1974
• Anti corruption
• commission
• Women Children
• Prevention of Repression
• Criminal Law Amendment
• Juvenile Court Act
• Rapid Trial courts etc.

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Trial procedure
Offence
Complaint Register (CR) Magistrates court
General Register (GR) Police cases

• Judicial Inquiry
• Inquiry (Chr, official)
• Dismiss

• Investigation
• Final Report
• Charge sheet

Cognizance
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Investigation
Information GD ---------- FIR
Investigation
Spot Map Witness Arrest Seizure TIP Dying decl.
Post Mortem Viscera Dissenter Expert opinion DNA
CS
Report
FR
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Trial
CS accepted by the court Cognizance
Summon WPA Newspaper Ad Absentia (339-b)
Appearance of the accused
Ready for trial - transfer to appropriate trial
court
Charge hearing
Frame charge-241
Discharge-243
Prosecution 244, 260
Examination of accused-342
Defense witness if any
Argument
Judgment
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Terrorism

• Essence of the activity - violence
• Aim of the activity to attain Political,
• Ideological or Religious objects.
• The target of terrorism innocent

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Terrorist Motives

• Damage Infrastructure
• Disrupt Normal Life
• Direct Killing of Enemy
• Undermine Confidence In Government

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TERRORISM IN REALITY
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TERRORISM - REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Causes of Terrorism in this Region

• Social prejudice, structural deficiency
• Ethno-religious dissatisfaction
• Intolerance, internecine conflict
• Ideological diversities
• Political and economic discrimination

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Major terrorist organizations seen to be
operative in Bangladesh in the past

• Religious extremist The principal current
  terrorist threat is from radicalized
  individuals/groups that are using a distorted
  version of Islam to justify violence. This
  radicalization is fed by the global Islamist
  agenda. Major identified groups are JMB, Huji-B,
  Islamic Democratic Party, Jadid-Al-Quaeda, Hijbut
  Tahrir Bangladesh, Shahadat-E- Al- Hikma,
  Tamira-Ad-Din , Allahar Dal etc.
• Left-wing extremist In order to challenge
  the local authorities and the private sector,
  attacks against the Government and state
  institutions and officials have previously been
  carried out by so-called leftist organizations.
  Major identified groups include Purbo Bangla
  Communist Party (ML-Lal pataka), Purbo Bangla
  Communist Party (ML-Janjjudha), Bangladesh
  Biplobli Communist Party (Different factions) etc.

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• Insurgency-backed terrorism Ethnic terrorism in
  Bangladesh is rooted in the quest of indigenous
  minorities to protect their lands from
  encroachment and to safeguard their own ethnic
  identity. However, after the signing of the
  Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord in 1997
  between the Government and PCJSS, the magnitude
  of ethnic terrorism has been substantially
  reduced. Groups involved are PCJSS, UPDF.
• Criminalized political terrorism/Domestic
  politics-based terrorism In Bangladesh, the
  secondary level threat stems largely from the
  unhealthy competition to retain power at any
  cost. In the competition for political support,
  the costs and repercussions of terrorism have
  often been ignored by the mainstream parties.

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• Socio-criminal terrorism It includes the
  criminal activities of murder, abduction,
  extortion etc committed by an organized group of
  criminals under a ring leader driven by greed,
  temptation and rapacity. These are done with a
  view to extorting money from businessman and rich
  persons, making a network for collection of toll,
  dominating drugs or arms trafficking business,
  controlling big construction works and tender
  business and maintaining supremacy and dominance
  over a large particular area.

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• Some incidents occurred are
• Bomb blast on cultural programme of Udichi
  Shilpoghosti at Townhall Moidan, Jessore on March
  6, 1999
• Bomb blast on Grand assembly of CPB at Poltan
  Moidan on January 20, 2001
• Bomb blast on Chayanot Pahela Baishhakh Festival
  at Ramnal Batmul on April 14, 2001
• Grenade Attack on British High Commissioner Anwar
  Chowdury in Sylhet on May 21, 2004
• Grenade Attack on the meeting of AL at
  Banghabondu Avenue on August 21, 2004
• Series Bomb Blast in 63 districts by JMB on
  August 17, 2005
• Killing of two Judges by throwing bomb on their
  vehicle on November 15 , 2005 in Jhalokathi
• Suicidal bomb explosion in the Court premise of
  Gazipur and Chittagong on November 30, 2005

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Muslim majority but blessed with exemplary
religious communal harmony in the region .
Secular by constitution. Socio-Political
environment is based on deep rooted traditions
and culture, not on religious sentiments .
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People are peace loving with numerous
ethno-religious diversity .
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Response to Terrorism in Bangladesh

• Response into four areas
• Terrorism,
• Terrorists and their sponsors,
• Public and
• Consequences of a terrorist strike.
• Strategies in use in the UN other countries
  and, where there is similarity

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• Bangladesh complies with the provisions of
  United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373
  (2001)
• Ratified international counter-terrorism
  instruments (all of the 13 international
  instruments related to counter-terrorism).
• Recent agreements with India
• A comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy
  incorporating all the provisions at par
  international standard to combat terrorism.

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Elements of evil power were dealt with severely
23
Efforts taken by Bangladesh
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EFFORTS TAKEN BY BANGLADESH
ANTI -TERRORISM COMMITMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT
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EFFORTS TAKEN BY BANGLADESH
MONITORING NGOS ACTIVITIES
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DE RADICALIZATION PROGRAMME IN BANGLADESH
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OBJECTIVE OF DE-RADICALIZATION

• Identify orthodox minded people and
• motivate them towards the actual sprit of
• Islam
• Recruit potential agent to infiltrate the
• extremist groups/ institution
• Collect information on Islamic issues,
• documentation of information and finally
• dissemination

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Recent Successes inBangladesh
Crackdown on JMB All key activists arrested
and sent for trail.
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Recent actions and Successes

• Government banned five extremist groups and
  ordered drives against all militant groups
• Shadat-E-Hikma Party Bangladesh
• Jamatul-Mujahedin Banglades (JMB)
• Jagroto Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB)
• Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami (HUJI)
• Hijbut Tahrir
• Most outlawed terrorists have been
• arrested and sent for trail.
• Awareness of mass people turned into real
• action

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• Successfully reached the target group which are
  relatively younger.

• Mobilized public opinion against terrorism and
  militancy
• Creating social awareness against extremism
• So far we have interacted with huge number of
  Imams, madrasa students and religious persons.
  They are now acting as our representative in the
  society to spread true sprit of Islam and thereby
  increasing the number of beneficiaries everyday

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Strategic steps taken

• Strengthening Legal and Judicial Infrastructure
  by
• ensuring judicial separation .
• Political, Economic and Social Development.
• Synchronization, Coordination alignment of
• activities among all the Law Enforcement
  Agencies,
• law and order intelligence agencies
• Intelligence sharing with Foreign Governments.
• Promulgation of Anti-Terrorism and Anti-Money
• Laundering Laws and their Enforcement.
• Social Mobilization/Awareness,
• Crafting Value- based progressive Education
• curricula.

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Implementation Framework for Counter Terrorism
Strategy of Bangladesh
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• Terrorism is not the problem of a single country
  and there is a pressing need for joint
  counter-terrorism efforts both at the regional
  and the global level.
• High level ownership of the strategy is
  essential for the successful implementation.

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CONCLUSION
Bangladesh has experienced a vibrant and visible
success by substantially curbing Islamist
extremist groups which deserves commendation.
Bangladesh government, however, happens to
continue vigorous search for alleged Extremists
and terrorists, though there is little
corresponding evidence of a proportionately
violent terrorist movement in the country at the
moment.
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Thanks a lot