Bangladesh PM calls for joint counter-terrorism efforts

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday called for concerted efforts to fight global terrorism as she highlighted the risk posed by militant organisations sprouting up in several countries, a media report said.

"The kind of security challenges that confronts mankind now cannot be faced alone by any country," bdnews24.com quoted Hasina as saying at the 'Seventh Asia-Pacific Intelligence Chiefs Conference' in the capital Dhaka.

Hoping that the conference would boost coordination among participants, she said Bangladesh maintains a "zero tolerance" policy towards terrorism.

Hasina noted that political will was the key to fight terrorism. "Our experience shows that militancy spreads when political parties patronise it."

"In the past, terrorists used to work in isolation and had hardly any coordination and cooperation with their associates in other parts of the world.

"But now, due to the technological advances, they work in a more coordinated manner with cooperation among different groups all over the world. They now enjoy increased mobility; communicate with greater ease and have vast territory to hide," she said.