Bangladesh experienced a decrease in terrorist activity in 2020, accompanied by an increase in terrorism-related investigations and arrests, says a new US report shared by the US Department of State on its website on Thursday.

In 2020, there were three specific terrorist incidents, resulting in no deaths, according to the “Country Reports on Terrorism 2020”. The “Country Reports on Terrorism 2019” was published on June 24, 2020.

The Bangladesh government continued to articulate a zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism and the use of its territory as a terrorist safe haven, according to the report.

In January, the government’s new national Antiterrorism Unit began standing up operations, to eventually assume a role as a lead counterterrorism agency.

Bangladesh cooperated with the United States to strengthen control over its borders and ports of entry, says the US report.  

The United States and Bangladesh continue to work on building Bangladesh’s technical capacity to develop a national-level “Alert List” of known or suspected terrorists, it says.  

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US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken in a press statement on Thursday said the Department of State issued the 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism (CRT), which provides a detailed look at the counterterrorism environment last year, fulfilling an important Congressional mandate. 

Each year, the CRT provides insight on important issues in the fight against terrorism and helps the United States make informed decisions about policies, programmes, and resource allocations as we seek to build counterterrorism capacity and resilience around the globe, the statement reads.

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