Counter-terrorism Strategies in Bangladesh: The Role of Police and Non-Governmental Organizations in Tackling Extremism

Abstract

Bangladesh's counter-terrorism architecture has undergone major changes since the Holey Artisan Bakery attack of 2016 and more recently, the proliferation of anti-violent extremism (AVE) groups, especially police and security forces, as well as the increasing cooperation between government agencies and non-governmental groups in tackling violent extremism. Throughout the study, a mixed-methods explanatory design is used. Institutional and documentary analysis focuses on the process of legal, organizational and operational reform as a result of the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in 2016, and a cross sectional survey with 150 purposively selected respondents from various segments including police officers, NGO practitioners, community leaders, and residents in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions offers quantitative evidence on the perceived effectiveness of police-initiated actions and NGO-run preventive activities in reducing extremism. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression with two control variables (age and residence division) were used in analyzing survey data in SPSS version 26. Cronbach's α for the three composite scales was acceptable (ranging from .78 to .86). The regression model explains 66% of the variance in perceived reduction of extremism (R² = .66, adjusted R² = .65, F(4, 145) = 70.31, p < .001). The standardized coefficients show that the police efforts (β = .52, p < .001) and the preventive activities run by NGOs (β = .38, p < .001) both significantly affect extremism, with the former having the greater effect. Institutional findings reveal the growing centralisation of specialist units, like the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit and the Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU), the enhanced inter-agency intelligence sharing and the slow progress in the implementation of community policing. The role of NGOs ranges from grassroots mobilisation, youth empowerment, counter-narrative development, to reintegration of formerly radicalised people. The results suggest a mixed approach of hard and soft counter-terrorism measures, with hard security measures complementing soft ones based on the community. But these gains are not sustainable due to ongoing human rights concerns, politicization of counter-terrorism legislation, inter-agency coordination issues and a lack of capacity to engage with digital and transnational threats. The paper suggests that Bangladesh needs to build its capability against large-scale attacks by establishing institutional accountability, formalizing police-NGO cooperation and institutional engagement with communities.