Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Sunday (October 4) there were no signs of Islamic State in the country despite the killings of two foreigners this week claimed by the group which has vowed further similar assaults in the Muslim-majority nation.
Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi, 65, was gunned down on Saturday (October 3) by three masked men on a motorcycle while on his way to visit a grass farm project in the northern district of Rangpur, an attack similar to Tuesday’s (September 29) shooting of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella.
“These (the killings) were obviously planned incidents. We now have war criminals on trial, they may be behind it,” Hasina said at a news conference.
“This does not mean that the achievements (of our country) have been nullified. And certainly the anti-liberation forces are behind this and they are doing it because they want to destroy our achievements. Until now I can say that there has been no sign of any IS or any terrorist organisation in the country and no group would be able to carry anything out because our intelligence departments are quite strong and whenever we see any signs we have been taking action against them,” she said.
Attacks on foreigners are rare in Bangladesh. But the country has been convulsed by a rising tide of Islamist violence over the past year in which four online critics of religious militancy were hacked to death, a U.S. citizen among them.
Police have not confirmed Islamic State, which has ambitions to spread into South Asia, is behind the two attacks. Dhaka police arrested two suspected recruiters for the hardline Islamist group over the past year.
On Saturday, Islamic State warned of more attacks.
“There will continue to be a series of ongoing security operations against nationals of crusader coalition countries, they will not have safety or a livelihood in Muslim lands,” the group tweeted.
After Tavella’s killing in the Gulshan neighbourhood, home to several embassies, concerns that foreigners might be targeted prompted Western embassies to curtail the movements of diplomats in Bangladesh.
Australia postponed their tour of Bangladesh, saying on Thursday (October 1) they were advised against going ahead with a two-test series that could expose their cricketers to potential militant attacks in the country.
“We have become very sensitive to anything that happens in the country and feel that all our achievements are under a shadow (when incidents like this happen). In Australia they blamed us immediately. (But right after that) Two people were killed at the doorstep in Australia, what do they have to say about that?” added Hasina.
Police are interrogating four people for clues to Hoshi’s killing, but no arrests have been made over Tavella’s murder.
