Distinguished Professor Ali Riaz has co-authored the paper “Bangladeshi Militants: What Do We Know?” in the journal Terrorism and Political Violence. The article is co-authored with Saimum Parvez of the University of Sydney.
Riaz and Saimum argue that despite recent global media attention to the militancy in Bangladesh, particularly since the cafe attack on July 1, 2016, there has been very little in-depth discussion about who these militants are and what is driving Bangladeshis to militancy.
The authors constructed an original and the largest data set about the Bangladesh militants, explores their profiles and common traits and assess their pathways. Drawing on media reports of the profiles of the alleged militants, between July 2014 and June 2015, and different sources, between July 2016 and August 2017, the article finds that most of the Bangladeshi militants are young, educated males increasingly coming from well-off families.
Riaz and Saimum also found evidence that four factors—social relationships, use of the Internet, personal crises, and external relations—appear most frequently in the narratives of Bangladeshi militants. The article is a part of the special issue on “Understanding Entry and Support for Terrorism.”
