Crying Wolf?

Terror and militancy is a burning threat in all of the South Asian countries. Many terrorist outfits operate in this region and sometime their operations are cross border.

The four month old new Bangladesh government has been tough with the militants, but the efforts are not enough considering the lack of infrastructure and training of the security agencies. However a section of people are propagating otherwise that the government is over stressing the case of Islamic terrorism.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief on Saturday at a rally said that there was no militant in the country as they had controlled of the militants by arresting and executing all the militants. Khaleda accused the four-month-old government of the Awami League of plotting to bring foreign troops in the country in the name of anti-militancy fight. (The Asian Tribune)

Interestingly BNP's allies Jamaat-e-Islami also claimed with reference to the government's resolution for a South Asian task force to counter terrorism:

“A certain quarter” is inviting “foreign forces to Bangladesh in search of militants mentioning the country’s inability to fight against militancy”.

The current threats prove otherwise. Recently typed letters were sent to offices of the UN’s children’s fund (UNICEF) and its World Food Programme (WFP), as well as the Red Crescent and Red Cross in the city of Barisal:

“The offices received identical letters signed by the group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) ordering them to shut down and pull out their staff within 24 hours, otherwise they would be killed."

The security around diplomatic zones in capital Dhaka was beeefed after an Islamist militant group threatened three missions including the U.S. embassy:

An unknown terror group, Jameaah Islamiyah al Qaeda, had threatened the U.S. embassy and the British, Canadian and Australian high commissions in Dhaka.

The threats were contained in letters faxed from a number in Malaysia.

The message demanded $100,000 from the missions through Western Union Money Transfer to fund the release of a forensic expert of the group, who is now in a Malaysian prison.

So is the government crying wolf? Can these threat be tackled without cooperation from other countries?