Australian Federal Police to open office in India and Bangladesh

Brisbane, Apr 12 (UNI) The Australian Federal Police (AFP) will open a branch in Bangladesh as fears grow that the country is likely to become a breeding ground for terrorists.

Besides Bangladesh the AFP plans to open a post in India also, taking the count of its bureaus in the Asia and South Pacific to 19.

Dr Karl Unger, international relations lecturer at the University of Queensland, said Bangladesh had been mentioned in a terrorism analyses to be a place where international terrorism groups could open training centres for their global activities.

''Bangladesh is the source country for one of the individuals who is associated with Willie Brigitte, the French national who came to Australia in 2003 and was preparing acts of terrorism here,'' Mr Unger said in an interview.

''Bangladesh has also been mentioned in other terrorism analyses about places where the splintered group Jemia Islamia is seeking to provide some cover or training activities,'' he added.

''It has a continuous border with Burma right on the edge of the Asian countries,'' he said and added ''So Bangladesh is not that far away from our strategic interests''.

David Wright Neville, an expert in political violence, said poverty and growing unemployment among youth in Bangladesh readied conditions conducive to terrorism.

''The lack of opportunity that is there - both economic, social opportunity, high rates of unemployment or underemployment, a sense that the state or the government is not protecting the welfare of the majority or not looking after the interests of the majority - all these ingredients that are conducive to an environment that breeds terrorism is present in Bangladesh at the moment,'' he said.

UNI XC PR PC1717