Bangladesh rejects Daesh role in deadly attacks
Officials in Bangladesh have denied claims that the Daesh Takfiri group was behind the recent deadly siege in the capital, Dhaka, saying the attackers were well-educated followers of a homegrown militant outfit.
“They have no connections with the Islamic State (Daesh),” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Sunday, adding that the attackers were members of Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB), a group banned over a decade ago.
National police chief, Shahidul Hoque, drew a link between the perpetrators of the siege, who killed 20 people in a restaurant on Friday night, and JMB.
“Primarily, we suspect they are JMB members,” Hoque said, adding that investigators would explore the possibility of “an international link.”
Daesh has claimed the attack on Western-style Holey Artisan Bakery café, saying it had targeted a gathering of “citizens of crusader states.”
The government in Bangladesh has repeatedly denied that international militant groups, like Daesh, have gained foothold in the country.
The standoff in Gulshan neighborhood of Dhaka, home to Bangladesh’s elite and many embassies, saw 18 foreigners killed. Two policemen were also shot dead in a fierce gun battle at the outset of the siege, which finally ended when commandos killed six gunmen and took another alive. Officials said most of the victims were slaughtered with machete-style weapons.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina decreed two days of national mourning beginning on Sunday. Services were held across the country in memory of the victims.
Hasina said the attacks were meant to tarnish the image of Islam and Bangladesh as an Islamic country.
“Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion,” Hasina said in an address to the nation on Saturday, adding, “By holding innocent civilians hostage at gunpoint, they want to turn our nation into a failed state.”
However, analyst in the local media said the attacks were a proof that notorious militant groups like Daesh were active in Bangladesh.
“The government must own up to the reality that the footprints of the ISIS (Daesh) in this country are very real and no amount of denying can alter the fact,” read an opinion piece in the Dhaka-based Daily Star newspaper.
A massive crackdown on domestic radical groups last months ended in 11,000 arrests, but opponents say the move was largely meant to silence critics and barely affected the perpetrators of hate crimes.
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