Dhaka: The Islamic State terror group today issued a new chilling video warning the Bangladesh government of more attacks in the country and across the world until Shariah law is established globally, saying last week’s gruesome attack on a cafe here was just “a glimpse”.
The video message believed to be issued from Raqqa, the stronghold of the terror group in strife-torn Syria in Bangla language was first found in an IS-affiliate website and then released on YouTube early today.
The video comes days after Islamist gunmen stormed a popular restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave late on Friday and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the US in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.
The ISIS video released in a SITE Intelligence site yesterday. The message containing threats has gone viral on social media among Bangladeshis still recovering from the shock from the slaughter of 20 hostages and two police officers in Dhaka.
“It was a glimpse…will repeat,” tweeted Rita Katz, director of SITE intelligence, quoting the men from the video. One had his face covered, while two others were bearded. The video begins with Islamic State propaganda messages, with captions in Bangla, and boasts of death tolls from numerous terror attacks claimed by IS.
“The jihad in Bangladesh, the one you are witnessing now, is nothing like anything you have seen before,” said one of them, in his ‘message’ for the Bangladesh government, bdnews24 reported. In the video, three of the speakers are of Bangladesh origin, but they could not be identified immediately.
One of them said they would not stop until establishing Shariah law all over the world. “We will not stop killing the crusaders till then; we will win or die for our religion as martyrs and achieve Sahadaat (martyrdom)… we don’t have anything to lose,” he said.
He termed the current form of democracy in Bangladesh a ‘Shirk’ or unforgivable crime. One of them said they would not stop until establishing Shariah law all over the world. “The Jihad that has come to Bangladesh now has been promised by Prophet Mohammed,” he claimed, Dhaka Tribune reported.
The second speaker labelled the government as ‘kafir’ (a person who is not a Muslim). “Since the govt has changed Allah’s law and has implied man-made law they are all ‘Kafirs’ now. It is our religious duty to fight against it. Crusaders are killing innocents Muslims globally with planes and bomb attacks.
“So the Holey Artisan (cafe) incident is our revenge to the lost blood of the hundreds and hundreds of Muslims who were killed,” he said.
Bangladesh government has claimed that the militants were members of the banned Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Three of the attackers are from well-off families and studied in Dhaka’s top schools while two others came from poor families in Bogra.
Since September last year, IS has claimed responsibility for at least 25 attacks killing foreigners, Hindus priests, Christians, and non-Sunni preachers and police besides secular activists and bloggers. They have also launched bomb and gun attacks on Shia and Ahmadiyya mosques.
