B’desh asks colleges to report missing students
Move comes after reports that some of the cafe attackers were studying in elite universities and had been missing for months
DHAKA: Bangladesh government on Sunday told schools, colleges and universities to report any missing students, in the wake of one of the country’s worst terror attacks.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called on every school, college and university to “create a list of absent students and publish it,” following reports that some of the militants behind the attack in Gulshan area were studying in elite universities and had been missing for months.
“We will be rigorous. We must uproot militancy and terrorism from Bangladesh,” Hasina said.
School authorities would now have to provide information on any students who have an unexplained absence of 10 days or more, education minister Nurul Islam Nahid said. At least three of the Gulshan attackers were educated, well-off members of society, leading to fears that Islamism has spread far beyond disenfranchised youngsters being radicalised in madrasas.
Another university student participated in a deadly attack in northern Bangladesh on Thursday that killed at least three people at a huge prayer gathering marking the start of Eid.
The five militants who killed 22 people, including an Indian, after attacking the Holey Artisan restaurant in upscale Gulshan on July 1 and whose photos the IS reportedly released, had been missing or not contacting their families for several months, their relatives said.
The suspected attacker of Eid gathering, who was killed in a firefight, had also been missing since March, police said.
Four of these six youths were students of top English medium schools in Dhaka. Two of them were students of private North South University and another of BRAC University.
Police said both attacks were carried out by a banned local militant group, despite claims of responsibility by the IS.
Authorities are urging parents to closely monitor their children. US assistant secretary of State Nisha Biswal is in Dhaka to discuss the security situation with Bangladesh foreign minister Mahmood Ali.
“We will continue our assistance in combating the global threat of terrorism that our countries both confront,” she said. The decision to demand the lists of students was taken at a meeting of education ministry officials, chaired by minister Nurul Islam Nahid, at the secretariat.
The ministry later issued an order in this regard, which said the institutions will have to make the lists of the absentee students and submit them to the Upazila education officers, reports said.