Bangladeshi authorities are trying to gather more information about Ahmed Faysal, the 26-year-old construction worker who was arrested under the Internal Security Act in Singapore earlier this month for his alleged involvement in terrorism-related activities.
An official from the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police told The Straits Times over the phone that a man named Faysal had cropped up in their investigations recently.
"We had no idea he was living in Singapore. All we knew is that he was someone living abroad and had been in online contact with some of our suspects," said Mr Saiful Islam, a deputy commissioner with the CTTC unit. Attempts are now being made to source more details on Faysal so that the authorities can ascertain whether the two individuals are one and the same.
Mr Islam added that he had not received any information about Faysal's arrest prior to the media reports and that he also knew nothing about the 15 other Bangladeshi nationals who were deported from Singapore.
Faysal's radicalisation journey, which began in 2018 in Singapore after he was exposed to pro-Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) materials online, has highlighted the continuing challenge for the authorities across the globe trying to crack down on online extremism.
Mr Shafqat Munir, head of the Bangladesh Centre for Terrorism Research in Dhaka, told ST it is critical to map out the entire process that led to Faysal's radicalisation, including what his motivations may have been to carry out attacks.
"Whether his radicalisation is closely related to what happened in France or does it go back even further - these are the things authorities in Bangladesh and Singapore need to work closely on," he said.
There has been no major terrorist attack in Bangladesh since July 2016. The attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery, which left 22 individuals dead, was claimed by ISIS but Bangladesh blamed it on Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a home-grown outlawed Islamist group.
All the five gunmen involved in the attack were killed by police and seven other individuals, who were found guilty of planning the assault and supplying weapons, were sentenced to death last November.
The government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly emphasised its "zero tolerance approach to terrorism and violent extremism". Since 2016, security forces have successfully cracked down on local terrorist networks but, as Mr Munir pointed out, the absence of terrorist attacks in the country "does not translate into the absence of a threat of terrorism".
"While Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in curbing terrorism, there is a need for more long-term strategic measures to further limit that threat," he said.
Fiercely proud of its syncretic traditions, Bangladesh has, in recent years, seen a growing tide of religious conservatism.
Around 40,000 people protested in the capital, Dhaka, last month following the re-publication of Prophet Muhammad's caricatures and France's tough stance on radical Islam.
