B’desh rejects IS claim of bomb attack on Shias
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s government on Sunday dismissed the Islamic State group’s claim that it was behind a bomb attack on thousands of Shia Muslims in the nation’s capital, and said there was no evidence that the Sunni extremist group had any following in the country.
It was the third time the Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in Bangladesh, after it said it was behind the recent killing of two foreigners - an Italian aid worker and a Japanese agricultural worker.
The government again redirected blame toward locally banned Islamist groups and the main Islamist political party, accusing them of staging Saturday’s attack to destabilise the already fractious and impoverished nation.
“Again, I am saying there is no IS,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said.
The country is struggling, however, to stem rising fears about radical Islam after a spate of violent attacks, including the murder of four atheist bloggers. Responsibility for those attacks was claimed by the domestic Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team, and authorities are investigating new threats against more bloggers made in an email signed by an Ansarullah spokesman and sent to Bangladeshi media last week.
Before dawn on Saturday, unidentified attackers hurled a set of home-made bombs into a crowd of Shia Muslims as they were gathering for a religious procession in Dhaka’s old quarter. A teenage boy died and more than 100 other people were injured.
It was the first time the 400-year-old Shia procession for the holiday of Ashoura had been targeted in Dhaka.
Within hours of the attack, the IS posted a statement online claiming responsibility for the attack.