A banned Islamist group linked to al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the killing of Nazimuddin Samad, a student who had posted comments against radicals Islamists on Facebook.
However, the Bangladesh government rubbished it, telling that there is no presence of the international terror group on its soil.
According to the SITE Intelligence group, a U.S.-based monitoring organisation, Ansar al-Islam, a Bangladesh branch of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent or AQIS, said in a statement posted online that its members carried out the attack in “vengeance”.
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“This operation was conducted to teach a lesson to the blasphemers of this land whose poisonous tongues are constantly abusing Allah,” Mufti Abdullah Ashraf, a spokesman for Ansar al-Islam, said in the statement according to SITE Intelligence Group.
However, Home Ministry’s additional secretary Abu Hena Muneem rubbished the claims.
A senior police officer, meanwhile said repeated claims of IS or AQIS involvement in such murders in the country visibly appeared to be part of a desperate campaign to show Bangladesh as a nation which is exposed to international terrorism. Samad was killed on April 6, the latest in a series of brutal attacks on secular bloggers and activists in the country.