Top anti-terror police official sees danger for Bangladesh after Sri Lanka attacks

The spine-chilling blasts that killed hundreds in Sri Lanka may send dangerous shockwaves to Bangladesh, so fears police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime or CTTC unit chief Monirul Islam.

He says the Bangladeshi militants, who are on the back foot following a crackdown on terrorism, may draw inspiration from the attacks on churches and hotels in the South Asian island nation during Easter Sunday celebrations.

Radical group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed more than 320 people.

A Sri Lankan minister says the coordinated attacks were in retaliation for the killings of 50 in shootings at mosques in New Zealand.

Besides expressing fear over the danger he sees, Monirul told the media at an event orgnised by the Crime Reporters Association in Dhaka on Tuesday that the security forces were also prepared to prevent militant attacks.

“We are proactive so that no-one can carry out any violent activities being encouraged by (Sri Lanka attacks). We at police and intelligence agencies are on alert,” he said.     

The police officer, who led the anti-terror crackdown following the 2016 Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka, claimed militants in Bangladesh are not capable now to carry out any large-scale attack.

Most of the Bangladeshis who joined the Islamic State had travelled to Syria by the end of 2014 and it would be difficult for them to return now as they must renew expired passport or travel back through another country because a direct journey from Syria to Bangladesh is not possible, according to Monirul.

Most of them were captured or killed, he said but added that Khandaker Rokonuddin, a physician who had travelled to Syria in 2015, might have been alive.

Citing unconfirmed sources, he said “a good number” of members of Sri Lanka’s National Thawheed Jama'ut, which was blamed for the Easter Day attacks, also joined the IS.

He says the photos, targets, and synchronicity of the Sri Lanka attacks suggest that the Thawheed Jama'ut is behind the blasts and that the attackers have international links.