Dhaka  - Bangladesh is to form a high-level anti-terrorism committee to both tackle the threat of attacks and educate the public about possible dangers, the government announced on Wednesday.

The body - to be headed by Home Affairs Minister Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj - will also attempt to counter propaganda from radical Islamist groups, and boost intelligence operations and surveillance.

Bangladesh's Awami League-led coalition government pin-pointed poverty and ignorance as key breeding grounds for Islamist militants in the mainly Muslim country.

"They [the poor people] are simply lured and misguided by the terrorists," said Sohel Taj, adding that the government intent on rehabilitating anyone beguiled by radical Islamist militants from "the path of destruction".

The poor have sometimes been paid by terrorist organizations to launch attacks, he claimed.

The government's programmes also focuses on radical imams at mosques, whilst school teachers will be trained to make students and communities aware of the lure of militant organizations.

Bangladesh has been rocked by several terrorist attacks in the past decade blamed on Islamist militants, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed narrowly escaping such an attack at an anti-terrorism rally in August 2004. (dpa)