Sylhet, April 23 2009: The Bangladesh government has formed a 17-member high-profile committee to tackle militancy in the country and mobilise public opinion against militant activities.

The committee led by State Minister for home Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj is comprised of top officials of seven ministries and law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Home ministry sources said the committee, formed on Monday, will evaluate the procedure for investigation into all major subversive acts carried out in the country.

"It will collect information, analyse those and issue necessary directives to combat militancy," Sohel Taj told journalists yesterday.

He said the committee would also devise strategies to fight militancy.

It will take necessary initiatives and seek the help of neighbouring countries to track down the Bangladeshis who fought as Mujahideens in Afghanistan.

Secretaries of home, LGRD and Cooperatives, law, education, religious affairs, information and social welfare ministries, the inspector general of police, director generals of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and heads of various intelligence agencies have been made members of the committee.

The state minister said major bomb blasts, grenade attacks and killings in the country will be given priority as investigation into the cases had been diverted to other direction in the past.

He said the home ministry will produce a complete report on militancy in the next cabinet meeting.

Earlier the home ministry placed a report on militancy twice before the cabinet but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rejected the report on both occasions terming it incomplete.

She asked the ministry to come up with a complete report.

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