IS warns it will carry out more attacks in B’desh
Extremists say won’t stop until Shariah law is established
DHAKA/NEW DELHI: The Islamic State warned on Wednesday of more attacks in Bangladesh until Shariah law is established, saying in a new video last week’s massacre of 20 hostages in a Dhaka cafe was only a glimpse of what is to come.
The video, posted on IS-affiliated websites, reflected the terror group’s focus on Bangladesh in recent months. Besides claiming the killing of several secular bloggers and Hindu priests, the IS chief for the country said he intends to use his fighters to mount guerrilla strikes inside India. “What you witnessed in Bangladesh... was a glimpse. This will repeat, repeat and repeat until you lose and we win and the Shariah is established throughout the world,” said a man identified as Bangladeshi fighter Abu Issa al-Bengali in the video monitored by SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadi organisations.
The video, which began with pictures of recent attacks in Paris, Brussels and Orlando in the US claimed by the IS, was shot in the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria.
Three fighters featured in the video are of Bangladeshi origin and they spoke in a mix of Bengali and English.
The fighters said Bangladesh is part of a bigger battlefield to establish the “caliphate” proclaimed by the IS in 2014 and the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery was “revenge” for the killing of Muslims by “crusaders”.
Police said on Wednesday that Saiful Islam Chowkidar, a pizza chef killed, was probably in league with the attackers.
Chowkider carried no arms but was seen “moving and running” with the five gunmen during the siege, said counter-terrorism police chief Monirul Islam. Police said on Tuesday Chowkidar was shot dead by mistake but Islam revised that, saying his death was “not accidental”, although police were unsure how he died and the role he played.