Speaker for resolving conflicts to prevent terrorism

Noting that a longstanding conflict might give rise to terrorism, Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury on Saturday called for not leaving a single conflict unresolved for long. She came up with the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at a seminar titled ‘Terrorism: Law and reality’ organised by Bangladesh Law Association at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban Auditorium on the Dhaka University (DU) campus.
Negotiation or any other means like arranging dialogue and mediation as well as constant engagement is important for resolving a conflict, the Speaker said. Stressing on ending ethnic and religious discrimination as well as marginalisation to prevent terrorism, she said, “If you exclude some people for ethnicity or based on religion, this also encourages terrorism. We have to be aware about all kinds of marginalisation, poverty and political exclusion.”
Dr Shirin Sharmin also underscored the need for promoting peace-building measures and a culture of peace and justice to resolve conflicts.
She said alongside a hard approach by the law enforcement agencies, all have to take a soft approach like making people aware of problems, proper use of technology, building cooperation among the civil organisations and promoting religious harmony for ending conflicts.
In his keynote speech at the seminar, Monirul Islam, additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police DMP) and head of its Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, said it is not possible in Bangladesh to fully root out terrorism by just arresting and punishing the accused. “Rather, social awareness as well as launching an anti-terrorism movement is important.”
“Considering the drive against terrorism as a national movement, civil society, socioeconomic organisations, families, imams and all the stakeholders of the country have to play vital role alongside police to raise awareness against terrorism,” he added.
President of Dhaka Bar Association and Bangladesh Law Association AKM Afzal Ul Munir presided over the seminar while Justice Hasan Foez Siddique of the Supreme Court, Justice Naima Haider of the High Court and Dean of DU Law Faculty Dr Md Rahmat Ullah, among others, spoke on the occasion