Bangladesh: Deradicalisation Call in Prisons Falls on Deaf Ears

Asia News Network

22 January 2018

The fight against militancy remains challenging as ever as dozens of militants are getting freed every year from prisons that have no de-radicalisation programmes.

The government has yet to launch such programmes to deradicalise inmates despite repeated demands from law enforcers and global anti-terror experts for years.

International security expert Prof Rohan Gunaratna last year said if militants were not rehabilitated and de-radicalised, they would pose a security threat after leaving the prisons and infect others with their ideology.

So, to prevent this from happening, the government should immediately launch a programme inside the prisons. As part of the programme, religious clerics can visit jail and use the Koran and the Hadith to counter the misinterpretation of religion by the terrorists to de-radicalise the inmates, he said.

Teachers should also be engaged to educate the inmates and re-establish their social and family connections, warned Prof Gunaratna, head of International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

They would need psychological rehabilitation to deal with their anxieties, depressions and hatred, he added.

He also underscored the need for vocational training of the de-radicalised ones so that they could get jobs.

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