While claiming in a video of last week's killing of 20 people in a Dhaka cafe as being merely a glimpse of what is to come, the Islamic State has warned of repeated attacks in Bangladesh and beyond until rule by sharia, Islamic law, is established.
More than 20 customers of a café, the majority of them foreigners, from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, were murdered last week end by five Bangladesh militants, most from wealthy, liberal families, who had stormed into the upmarket restaurant and kept customers, including those murdered, hostage for more than 15 hours.
"What you witnessed in Bangladesh ... was a glimpse. This will repeat, repeat and repeat until you lose and we win and the sharia is established throughout the world," said a man identified as Bangladeshi fighter Abu Issa al-Bengali, in the video monitored by SITE intelligence site.
While blaming the Friday’s attack as being conducted by a domestic militant group, the Bangladesh government has rejected the Islamic State's claim of responsibility for the attack.
While on numerous earlier occasions, Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year in Bangladesh, the latest attack and killing was one of the deadliest attacks in Bangladesh.
Pictures of recent attacks in Paris, Brussels and Orlando in the United States were shown in the initial part of the video. The Middle East-based militants have claimed responsibility for all the above mentioned attacks.
Bangladesh must know that it was now part of a bigger battlefield to establish the cross-border "caliphate" the group proclaimed in 2014, said the fighter in the video, who spoke in both Bengali and English.
"I want to tell the rulers of Bangladesh that the jihad you see today is not the same that you knew in the past. The jihad that is waged today is a jihad under the shade of the Caliphate," the self proclaimed Isis fighter said from a busy street in the militant group's de facto capital of Raqqa, in Syria.
Police said they were stepping up security in response to the video threat even though Bangladesh has rejected the IS claim of responsibility for Friday's attack.
"We are taking this issue seriously. All our concerned units are working tirelessly," said deputy police inspector general Shahidur Rahman.
Police believe that a significant role in organizing the band of privileged, educated young men who carried out the attack was played by the domestic Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Six members of the group suspected to have helped the attackers is being hunted out for, the police said.
But some level of guidance from international militant groups was evident from the scale and sophistication of the attack on the Holey Artisan bakery café, believes foreign security experts.
Police commandos had mistakenly shot dead a restaurant chef during the operation to end the siege, officials in Dhaka said on Tuesday.
Security officials had ordered major hotels and restaurants in the neighborhood of the cafe shut after they had seen online warnings about an impending attack on Friday, said H.T. Imam, a political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
But they missed the actual target, he said.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
More than 20 customers of a café, the majority of them foreigners, from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, were murdered last week end by five Bangladesh militants, most from wealthy, liberal families, who had stormed into the upmarket restaurant and kept customers, including those murdered, hostage for more than 15 hours.
"What you witnessed in Bangladesh ... was a glimpse. This will repeat, repeat and repeat until you lose and we win and the sharia is established throughout the world," said a man identified as Bangladeshi fighter Abu Issa al-Bengali, in the video monitored by SITE intelligence site.
While blaming the Friday’s attack as being conducted by a domestic militant group, the Bangladesh government has rejected the Islamic State's claim of responsibility for the attack.
While on numerous earlier occasions, Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year in Bangladesh, the latest attack and killing was one of the deadliest attacks in Bangladesh.
Pictures of recent attacks in Paris, Brussels and Orlando in the United States were shown in the initial part of the video. The Middle East-based militants have claimed responsibility for all the above mentioned attacks.
Bangladesh must know that it was now part of a bigger battlefield to establish the cross-border "caliphate" the group proclaimed in 2014, said the fighter in the video, who spoke in both Bengali and English.
"I want to tell the rulers of Bangladesh that the jihad you see today is not the same that you knew in the past. The jihad that is waged today is a jihad under the shade of the Caliphate," the self proclaimed Isis fighter said from a busy street in the militant group's de facto capital of Raqqa, in Syria.
Police said they were stepping up security in response to the video threat even though Bangladesh has rejected the IS claim of responsibility for Friday's attack.
"We are taking this issue seriously. All our concerned units are working tirelessly," said deputy police inspector general Shahidur Rahman.
Police believe that a significant role in organizing the band of privileged, educated young men who carried out the attack was played by the domestic Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Six members of the group suspected to have helped the attackers is being hunted out for, the police said.
But some level of guidance from international militant groups was evident from the scale and sophistication of the attack on the Holey Artisan bakery café, believes foreign security experts.
Police commandos had mistakenly shot dead a restaurant chef during the operation to end the siege, officials in Dhaka said on Tuesday.
Security officials had ordered major hotels and restaurants in the neighborhood of the cafe shut after they had seen online warnings about an impending attack on Friday, said H.T. Imam, a political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
But they missed the actual target, he said.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
