Five suspected Islamists were on Monday arrested in Bangladesh in connection with last week’s attempt on the life of a pastor and one of them has confessed to the attack, saying they wanted to defame the government and create a “sensation in Western world”, police said.
The Jamaatul Islam Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) member, who pastor Luke Sarker identified as 23-year-old Rakib, confessed to his involvement in the assassination attempt that came days after two foreigners were killed by armed men in attacks claimed by the ISIS, they said.
“We have arrested five members of the [outlawed] JMB [Jamaatul Islam Mujahideen Bangladesh]... one of them admitted he was directly involved in the attack on pastor Luke Sarker,” Alamgir Kabir, police chief of north-western Pabna district where the attack took place, told PTI.
“During initial interrogation they said [that] on orders from their regional commander, they tried to kill the pastor to create an international uproar,” he said.
“As he [Rakib] confessed his involvement in the assassination attempt, we asked him why they targeted an ordinary priest. In reply, he said they wanted to defame the government and create a sensation in western world by killing a Christian clergy,” he added.
The police chief said that a massive manhunt was launched to track down the regional JMB leader who, according to the detained men, ordered Mr. Sarker’s murder “to create a global sensation”.
Mr. Kabir said 52-year-old Luke Sarker was called to the local police station where he identified one of the JMB members as one of the three assailants who attacked him with a knife at his house at Iswardi sub-district after pretending to be enthusiastic learners of Christianity.
However, the assailants fled the scene as people in the neighbourhood rushed when Mr. Sarker, also a homeopath practitioner, screamed for help.
The assassination attempt came a week after unidentified assailants gunned down Japanese businessman Hosi Koniyo in northwestern Rangpur on October 3, five days after Italian aid official Cesare Tavella was killed in the capital Dhaka, sparking an international uproar.
The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the killings. The claim was, however, refuted by the Bangladeshi government, which blamed the Opposition for trying to destabilise the country.
Meanwhile, the police has said all these incidents could be part of an orchestrated campaign to create “political sensation”.
The murders prompted Bangladesh to enforce an unprecedented security vigil particularly in Dhaka’s Gulshan diplomatic zone and upmarket areas where the foreigners live.
