Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Habibur Rahman said that the Baishakh celebration is an expression of the non-communal spirit of Bengali ethnicity. That's why the celebration faced various setbacks, violence, and militant attacks repeatedly. However, this time there is no fear of militant attack on the occasion of Pahela Baishakh. Keeping all the issues in mind, security measures have been taken by the DMP. He said these to reporters after visiting the venue of Pahela Baishakh at Ramna Park on Saturday (April 13). The DMP commissioner said a plan has been taken to provide extensive security centering the Baishakh, every program in Dhaka will be monitored through CC camera. Watch towers have also been built outside. There will be drones at the venue. Video cameras will be everywhere. He said there will be various programmes at Suhrawardy Udyan, Dhaka University, Ramna Botomul, Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament), Hatirjheel, and Rabindra Sarobar in the capital. The DMP has undertaken extensive security measures regarding the programmes. The Bomb Disposal Unit will conduct their regular rehearsals. For the same reason, traffic will be controlled in Dhaka University and Ramna areas. The DMP commissioner said that all programmes should end by the evening.    all programmes should end by the evening.  

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested a fugitive militant of an outlawed militant outfit "Hijbut Tahrir" from the city's Kotwali area.   The arrested was identified as Ahmmed Nizam, 35, who was a top cadre of the banned militant outfit and was a fugitive while he was convicted for two-year in five cases.   Acting on a tip-off, a team of the elite forces arrested him around 3:30 pm on Monday from Kotwali Police Station area in the capital, Senior ASP Shihab Karim, also a senior assistant director (Media) of the RAB, disclosed the matter today (Jan 17).   A total of five cases---four had been under the Anti-Terrorist Act and the rest other was filed under Police Assault Case-- filed with Khilgaon Police Station against Nizam in 2013, he said.   Nizam also had been working in the dawati department of the banned outfit and carrying out militant activities while keeping himself in a hiding place for a long. He had completed diploma in Civil Engineering from a Polytechnic Institute in 2010, the sources said.

The terrorist attacks by Islamist militant Hamas on Israel have already caused ripple effects that reach far beyond the borders of Israel and Gaza. They have also put many hopes on hold. It's two weeks since Saudi de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that their countries got "closer every day" and that they were "at the cusp of a deal, which would be a quantum leap for the region." But that seems like a long time ago. Similarly distant is bin Salman's lack of interest in a Palestinian two-state solution that would give Palestinians an independent country with East Jerusalem as a capital. In late September, he didn't even mention the two-state solution in a major TV interview with the US channel Fox News. He only said that the new deal with Israel would "give the Palestinian their needs and ensure a good life for them." Israeli-Saudi ties at stake Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, told DW that it was "unlikely to expect that there is going to be progress on Saudi-Israeli normalization in the near future." In his view, "the politics and trades that would be required are unlikely to allow for it if the Israel operation results in significant deaths and destruction in Gaza." On Monday afternoon, Israel's Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant gave the order to completely close off Gaza. "There will be no electricity, food or fuel delivered to Gaza," he said in a statement.  Hugh Lovatt, a research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told DW he believed "Arab public opinion — which remains largely hostile to Israel — will be amplified by the Israeli actions." Lovatt sees this sentiment as a further obstacle for an "imminent deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, while putting Arab members of the Abraham Accords such as Morocco and the UAE [United Arab Emirates] under pressure to stake out a more critical stance toward Israel to deflect public pressure." The United Arab Emirates, which signed a normalization agreement with Israel in 2020, "has offered condolences for Israeli civilians and called for de-escalation, but they stopped short of condemning Hamas outright," Bloomberg financial news service reported on Monday. Balancing US and Iran Yet, it is not only Arab pressure that will influence Saudi Arabia's decisions whether to proceed with a normalization agreement with Israel. Two other countries, in particular, will play a big role — Iran and the US. Despite this year's rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and former rival Iran, both countries remain pitted against each other when it comes to their allies. Iran backs Hamas, which rules Gaza and launched the attacks on Israel.  Saudi Arabia, however, had hoped that normalizing ties with Israel would bring relations with the US back to where they were before the murder of the Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The trilateral deal would also grant Saudi Arabia a stronger military alliance with the US as well as a permit to enrich uranium under American supervision. "Strategic thinkers in Riyadh may have in the back of their mind the real question of how much death and destruction would Saudi Arabia face in a similar conflict, given its defenses are nowhere near that of Israel," Panikoff told DW. "In the long term, that could drive Saudi Arabia to seek to return to the table to get the US security guarantees that were such an integral part of the reported conversations," he added.

Turkey hit several- Kurdish targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced. It said that it had "destroyed" some 20 targets associated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), including caves, shelters and depots. The ministry said that a large number of PKK operatives were "neutralized" in the strikes, which it referred to as an "air operation." "Turkish army planes bombed parts... of the Bradost region at around 9:20 pm (1820 GMT), as well as the village of Badran," Ihsan Chelabi, the mayor of the Iraqi Kurdish town of Sidakan, told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency. The PKK, a left-wing Kurdish militant group, is listed as a terror group by Turkey, the EU and the US. The Kurds number around 35 million and predominantly inhabit parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. In recent years, Ankara has increasingly targeted Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria. In April, Turkey arrested 110 people in an operation targeting people with alleged links to the PKK. Strikes follow suicide bombing in Turkey The strikes come several hours after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance to the Turkish Interior Ministry, wounding two police officers. A second man was killed in a shootout with police. The PKK claimed responsibility for Sunday's suicide bombing. Hours after the blast, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that "terrorists" would never achieve their aims. The attack took place hours before parliament was set to reopen. In its autumn session, the Turkish parliament is to consider Sweden's bid to join the NATO military alliance, of which Turkey is a member.

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested an active member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir Bangladesh from Mohammadpur area of the capital during a drive on Sunday afternoon. The arrestee- Md Abdul Baten, 60, is the son of late Arshad Ali, a resident of Daulatpur Thana area in Manikganj district. BSS Reports "A team of the RAB-2 arrested him after a search operation was conducted in Mohammadpur Thana area around 3pm yesterday," RAB-2 Senior Assistant Director (media) ASP Shihab Karim told BSS today. "Baten is an active member of the banned militant outfit, and a leader of its Dawat and finance department. Total four cases were lodged against him in Dulatpur thana of Manikganj and Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and Hazaribagh thanas in the capital," he added. "A court issued warrant against him five years ago, and ever since then, he has been absconding by changing his identity," he added. Necessary legal action has been taken against him, the RAB-2 official added.

Eleven people were killed in a suspected militant attack in northern Pakistan, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on Sunday. Kakar posted on X, previously known as Twitter, that a "terrorist attack" in North Waziristan "claimed the lives of 11 innocent laborers." According to security and police officials, a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) detonated beneath a truck transporting workers to an army construction site in Waziristan, situated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghanistan border. No organization has yet taken responsibility for the incident. Rise in Islamist militant attacks Over the past year, Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in attacks orchestrated by Islamist militants, especially after the dissolution of a cease-fire agreement between the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the national government. Other extremist groups, including the so-called "Islamic State," have claimed responsibility for several attacks. A major explosion at a political gathering in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa organized by a religious faction last month resulted in the deaths of 45 individuals.

Suspicion of a militant hideout, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) conducted a drive in Kulaura thana of Moulivibazar on Saturday morning. Additional Superintendent of Police Mahmudul Hasan in Moulvibazar confirmed the matter. Muhibul Islam, chairman of Karmadha Union Parishad (UP) of Kulaura said Law enforcement forces raided a newly constructed house on a hill in Baishali Bari area of ​​East Tatti Uli village of the union.

Clashes erupted between members of the Palestinian Fatah group and rival groups which support Islamists. Violence is not uncommon at Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp. Clashes between residents of Lebanon's largest Palestinian camp near the coastal city of Sidon left at least six people dead amid fighting between the Palestinian Fatah group and rival pro-Islamist groups within the camp, Palestinian officials said Sunday. A Fatah commander and four aides were killed in the clashes. A member of a group sympathetic to hardline Islamists also perished. The killings ignited violence within the camp which lasted for two days and only subsided late on Sunday. Ein el-Hilweh hosts some 50,000 Palestinian refugees. It is notorious for its lawlessness, as is believed to be a refuge for extremists and fugitives. A 1969 Arab Accord prevents the Lebanese army from entering the country's 12 Palestinian refugee camps. That means factions are left to handle security among themselves. What do we know about the clashes? Clashes began on Saturday, after an unknown gunman tried to kill an Islamist militant, shooting dead his companion instead. The attack prompted Islamist militants to shoot and kill the Fatah military general and four of his aides, which the Palestinian presidency described the incident as a  "heinous massacre and terrorist assassination." The violence involved assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and the lobbing of hand grenades. The fighting slowed after a ceasefire was reached in a meeting between rival Palestinian factions. The meeting involved the pro-Iranian, militant Hezbollah group and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement. Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged in a statement "the Palestinian leadership to cooperate with the army to control the security situation and deliver to the Lebanese authorities those who compromise it."

The Rapid Action Battalion, Rab has detained 3 members of the banned militant outfit Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharquia including the head of the organization Md. Anisur Rahman mahmud in Munshiganj on Monday. ANM Imran Khan, Assistant Director of Rab's legal and media wing confirmed the matter. Rab will hold a media briefing to share detail at the later of the day, he added. Earliar, July 23, on the basis of secret information, RAB conducted an operation after learning about the presence of militant members in Lauhjong area of ​​Munshiganj. In 2019, 'Jamatul Ansar fil Hindal Sharqiya' (Jamatul Ansar of Eastern Hind) was formed.  

Islamist militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for killing an army officer in an area close to the Afghan border. Four soldiers were killed in northwestern Pakistan, the military said on Thursday. The incident comes amid a surge in terrorist attacks in the country. What happened in the attacks on Pakistani soldiers? Three soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing in North Waziristan, a region that long served as a base for Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida. "The suicide bomber intended to target the security forces' post. However, timely interception of the suicide bomber on suspicion by on-duty soldiers prevented a major catastrophe," the military's media wing ISPR said. In a separate incident, militants killed a Pakistani army officer on Thursday in the course of a gun battle in a tribal district close to the Afghan border, the army said.  The 33-year old army officer was leading an operation in the Khyber region where he was shot dead in an exchange of fire.  Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a local militant umbrella organisation of Sunni Islamists and sectarian groups, claimed responsibility for killing Shah. No group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing yet. Increase in terror attacks in Pakistan The killings happened amid an alarming and steady surge in terror attacks in the country.  According to a statistical report released by the independent think tank in Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, there has been a 79% increase in militant attacks during the first six months of 2023.  The report noted a total of 271 militant attacks during this period, killing 389 people.  For the same six-month period in 2022, the country witnessed 151 attacks that left 293 dead, according to the report. It is said that around 80,000 Pakistanis have been killed in years of violence by the Taliban.