Most of the Italians are “surprised” at the murder of their fellow citizen in Bangladesh, a senior Italian journalist has said.
“We think about Bangladesh not as a terrorist hotspot, but only as a country from where many people want to come to Europe and Italy, too, as migrants,” Fausto Biloslavo, who mostly covered wars for last 30 years, toldbdnews24.com on Tuesday when asked.
Cesare Tavella, employed by the Netherlands-based NGO ICCO, was gunned down on Monday evening at the heart of the diplomatic enclave in Gulshan amid security concerns by the western countries.
The radical group Islamic State has purportedly claimed responsibility for the murder, though police have no lead.
The EU, US, and the UK strongly condemned the murder and demanded that perpetrators be brought to justice.
“There is a lot of emotion in Italy,” Biloslavo said, since Tavella was “a humanitarian expert”.
Biloslavo, one of the most experienced Italian war correspondents, said all headlines on Tuesday morning newspapers were “more or less like Italian national killed by Isis because he was a crusader”.
He said if it was confirmed, then it would be the first Italian killed by the Islamic State.
But Biloslavo, who also writes on international terrorism, remained skeptical about the link with the IS in this murder.
“I know Bangladesh is more infiltrated by al-Qaeda,” he said.
Tavella’s colleagues at the ICCO Cooperation said he was “a hard-working professional, committed to help the people of Bangladesh”.
“He was respected and loved by all his team members in the country office and field offices around the country.”
He was working as a project manager of PROOFS – Profitable Opportunities for Food Security – a project at the Bangladesh Country Office of ICCO Cooperation.
Biloslavo said Italians were also asking why the Italian embassy and foreign ministry in Rome did not issue any travel warning like the Australian and British missions.
Australia and the UK advised its nationals to limit their movement as they claimed of having reliable information that their citizens may be attacked by militants.
Cricket Australia has delayed its team’s Bangladesh tour.
Source: Bd news24
