Staff Reporter :
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Sunday reiterating the government’s stand over the existence of Islamic State (IS) in Bangladesh said that the release of video footage by the radical Salafist group on Bangladesh is part of a conspiracy against the country.
“I’ve said it before there’s no organisational existence nor leader of IS in Bangladesh. The video footage has been released as part of a conspiracy against the state,” he said.
The minister told the reporters after inaugurating the Regional Passport Office Building in the city’s Uttara area on Sunday.
The IS group on Friday night released a new video featuring the five terrorists who killed 23 people, including 17 foreigners at a Gulshan restaurant on July 1.
In the 15-minute video message – both in Bangla and Arabic — the international terrorist group calls on jihadists to launch armed attacks on the atheists, apostates and crusaders as revenge to the persecution on IS fighters in Iraq and Syria, and elsewhere.
The video was first released by the Arabic Nashir channel on Telegram. Nashir is the official IS media channel.
Earlier in the morning, IS’ Bangla media At-Tamkin made an announcement on its website that they would release a video produced by the “Bilad al-Bengal media office.” Bilad, in this context, means province or region.
In the video, the five terrorists believed to be recorded sometime before the Gulshan attack, made statements to justify their stance, criticising the democratic system and political leaders. They also came down heavily on the Islamic scholars for resisting Muslims from joining the armed jihad of the Islamic State.
The five Gulshan cafe attackers – Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Khairul Islam Payel, Shafiqul Islam Uzzal and Meer Saameh Mubasser – were killed in a commando operation on July 2.
Police launched crackdown on the militants after the attack, and have so far killed at least 31 members of the New JMB, who had link with the IS group. They have killed 45 people in 26 attacks conducted since September last year.
Replying to a question about fleeing of suspected militants from the country, the Home Minister said the government will take support from the criminal database for preventing the issuance of passports for militants.
In April, IS claimed that they wanted to attack India and Myanmar from its base in Bangladesh, which they identified as Bengal. In June, IS recognised its Bangladesh wing as a covert unit.
