In an infographic released early yesterday, international terrorist group Islamic State listed 11 operations, including the Gulshan mass attack, that their members have carried out this year across Bangladesh killing at least 37 people.
The group, however, mysteriously refrained from mentioning five other attacks committed since January that they previously took credit for, including the murder of two homoeopaths in Jhenaidah and a Rajshahi University professor.
The photo post published by its Amaq news agency also did not claim the IS-style attack on the police near Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj that killed three people on Eid day. IS also did not take credit for two other similar attacks – on a Hindu priest in Gopalganj and a Hindu college teacher in Madaripur.
All 16 attacks this year and the nine others committed since September 28 last year, when an Italian NGO worker was shot dead at Gulshan, have also been verified by US-based jihadist monitor SITE Intelligence Group.
The victims of IS include non-Sunni and non-Muslim preachers, foreigners and law enforcers. They also bombed and opened fire on devotees inside two mosques of the Shia and Ahmadiyya communities, and blasted bombs inside two temples.
The government denies the presence of IS’ organisational base in the country and instead blames the local banned militant groups for the killings. The police suspect that one of the several sections of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) might have established contact with IS.
They have found the involvement of several outlawed groups – JMB, Ansarullah Bangla Team (believed to be representing al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) and Hizb ut-Tahrir – in most of the attacks claimed by IS.
Some detained JMB members have also given confessional statements while the investigators have filed charge sheets in some cases.
On the other hand, Ansar Al Islam (believed to be outlawed group Ansarullah) which is representing al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in Bangladesh has claimed credit for 13 attacks since 2013 killing 11 people including war crimes trial campaigners, secular bloggers, writers, publishers and LGBT rights activists.
Gulshan attack victims 22 or 24?
In another infographic published by the group’s weekly magazine al-Naba on Tuesday, IS boasted 14 terror attacks across the world, including in Syria, Iraq, the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa during Ramadan killing and injuring around 5,200 people.
The victims of the recent attack on a Gulshan eatery on July 1 include 22 people, mostly foreigners and two police officers, shot and slaughtered in the country’s deadliest militant attack. Some 40 other policemen were injured in the assault.
The latest IS infographic, however, mentions 24 individuals at Holey Artisan Bakery.
Five of the attackers were killed in a commando operation the next morning when the pizza chef of the restaurant was killed mistakenly. An assistant cook, detained as a suspect, succumbed to his injuries at a Dhaka hospital. A total of 32 guests and staff survived the attack.
During Ramadan, the IS members also killed four others in Bangladesh – three Hindu priests in Jhenaidah and Pabna and an Awami League leader from the Marma community in Bandarban.
Mistakes, denials
Meanwhile, the infographic wrongly mentioned Rajshahi’s Bonpara as the location of an attack on Hindu priest Nityanando Pandey though he was killed near the temple at Hemayetpur of Pabna on June 10.
Moreover, it said that Awami League leader Mong Sanu Marma had been killed in Chittagong, Jhenaidah on June 30. But the murder took place in Baishari of Naikkhyangchhari in Bandarban.
Buddhist monk Maung Shue U was slaughtered at Naikkhyangchhari on May 14. This attack was claimed by Amaq on June 5 along with the murder of Christian grocer Sunil Gomez at Bonpara of Baragram in Natore. But in the latest statement, IS dropped the murder of Maung Shue from the list.
The group also did not mention the murder of two homoeopaths in Jhenaidah – Chhamir Uddin Mandal on January 7 and Shia preacher Abdur Razzaq on March 14.
Chhamir Uddin was termed an apostate in a statement IS released to take credit for the murder. But locals say he was converted to Christianity in 1993 but switched back to Islam four years ago and used to say prayers at the local mosque.
On the other hand, Razzaq was described as a “polytheist apostate” and one of the top preachers for the “Rafida” religion – a pejorative term for Shias used by Salafists.
Earlier, IS militants killed Japanese national Hoshi Kunio in Rangpur on October 3 last year believing him to be a non-Muslim and a foreigner. But Kunio actually converted to Islam several months ago and started a farm because he had plans to stay in Bangladesh.
IS also wrongly claimed Kushtia homoeopath and Baul aficionado Sanwar Hossain, who was killed on May 20, because he was thought to be a Christian. The apparent reason for this was that he ran a free clinic located next to a church.
In the latest statement, the Islamic State group also did not mention the murder of Hindu hardware businessman Tarun Datta which they had earlier claimed. He was found beheaded in Bardhankuthi area of Gobindaganj in Gaibandha on February 8.
On April 23, IS also claimed the murder of RU English department teacher and cultural activist Prof Dr AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique, nearly 10 hours after the attack was carried out near his house in Shalbagan area of the city.
The killing of Prof Rezaul was not on the list of operations the group released yesterday. The police have arrested eight people, mostly leaders and activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, in the case.
What IS wants
The first Bangladeshi group of five people gave Bayah (allegiance) to IS caliph Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in early August 2014 taking oaths to organise Muslims under his leadership.
In the 14th edition of IS’ Dabiq magazine published on April 13, the group claimed that they have an organisational base in Bangladesh (they term it Bengal), from where they have plans to attack India and Myanmar to “avenge the persecution on Muslims” in those countries.
The chief of its Bangladesh wing also mentioned that Shariah would not be achieved until the local Hindus were targeted in mass numbers.
On July 6, three other Bangladeshi youths released a video from Raqqa of Syria hailing the Gulshan attack and threatening more attacks. The attack on the Sholakia Eid congregation took place the following day.
So far, several dozen Bangladeshis have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the war for IS. Some have been killed in airstrikes.
On the other hand, law enforcers since 2014 have arrested more than 30 recruiters, trainers and followers of IS, mainly students from well-to-do families, who were planning to travel to Syria. But nearly three dozen trained recruits have not yet been arrested.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
