Joynal Abedin Khan :
Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for killing the three bloggers and a university teacher in Bangladesh.
Al-Qaeda operatives murdered blogger Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman Babu, Rajib Haider and Rajshahi University (RU) teacher Professor AKM Shafiul Islam, claimed Asim Umar, leader of the AQIS.
He also claimed that Washiqur, Rajib and RU teacher AKM Shafiul Islam were ‘blasphemers’.
The video, posted on YouTube on Saturday, was first spotted by Search for
International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group, a US website that monitors extremist groups.
The report was published by Lebanon based print media The Daily Star and other international media.
Avijit was murdered by fanatics on February 26, during a trip to Bangladesh with his wife. Both Avijit and Rafida Ahmed Bonya are naturalsed US citizens, and two of Avijit’s books were published in this year’s book fair.
The Bangladesh-born writer, who emigrated to the southern US State of Georgia some 15 years ago, was well-known in his native land for his Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog where he mailed against all forms of organised religion.
He was also the author of a series of books, including the best-seller “The Virus of Faith”, which was hugely contentious in Bangladesh.
Ahmed Rajib Haider, a blogger and an activist of the Shahbagh Gonojagoron Mancha movement, was hacked to death in the capital’s Pallabi on February 15, 2013.
Secular blogger Md Washiqur Rahman Babu was hacked to death on March 30, this year, in Tejgaon, Dhaka allegedly for his atheist views.
On November 15, last year, unidentified assailants hacked Prof Shafiul to death with machetes in broad daylight near his Chouddopai residence close to the Rajshahi University campus.
Earlier, a little-known Bangladeshi militant group called Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) also claimed responsibility for Roy’s murder via a twitter account which police have not been able to verify as genuine.
A spokesman for Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which is tasked with tackling militancy in the Muslim-majority nation, said it couldn’t verify the claim.
“We are not sure,” Mufti Mahmud told The New Nation when asked if Al- Qaeda was behind the deaths of Avijit and anti-Islam writers Ahmed Rajib Haider and Washiqur Rahman.
Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for killing the three bloggers and a university teacher in Bangladesh.
Al-Qaeda operatives murdered blogger Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman Babu, Rajib Haider and Rajshahi University (RU) teacher Professor AKM Shafiul Islam, claimed Asim Umar, leader of the AQIS.
He also claimed that Washiqur, Rajib and RU teacher AKM Shafiul Islam were ‘blasphemers’.
The video, posted on YouTube on Saturday, was first spotted by Search for
International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group, a US website that monitors extremist groups.
The report was published by Lebanon based print media The Daily Star and other international media.
Avijit was murdered by fanatics on February 26, during a trip to Bangladesh with his wife. Both Avijit and Rafida Ahmed Bonya are naturalsed US citizens, and two of Avijit’s books were published in this year’s book fair.
The Bangladesh-born writer, who emigrated to the southern US State of Georgia some 15 years ago, was well-known in his native land for his Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog where he mailed against all forms of organised religion.
He was also the author of a series of books, including the best-seller “The Virus of Faith”, which was hugely contentious in Bangladesh.
Ahmed Rajib Haider, a blogger and an activist of the Shahbagh Gonojagoron Mancha movement, was hacked to death in the capital’s Pallabi on February 15, 2013.
Secular blogger Md Washiqur Rahman Babu was hacked to death on March 30, this year, in Tejgaon, Dhaka allegedly for his atheist views.
On November 15, last year, unidentified assailants hacked Prof Shafiul to death with machetes in broad daylight near his Chouddopai residence close to the Rajshahi University campus.
Earlier, a little-known Bangladeshi militant group called Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) also claimed responsibility for Roy’s murder via a twitter account which police have not been able to verify as genuine.
A spokesman for Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which is tasked with tackling militancy in the Muslim-majority nation, said it couldn’t verify the claim.
“We are not sure,” Mufti Mahmud told The New Nation when asked if Al- Qaeda was behind the deaths of Avijit and anti-Islam writers Ahmed Rajib Haider and Washiqur Rahman.
