Bangladesh on high alert after Daesh attack

Bangladesh is on alert as ISIS with its growing support in South Asia has threatened to launch a attack days after the group claimed responsibility for Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka.

A pro-ISIS ‘Telegram’ application has released a poster in Bangla which says, “Coming Soon” and indicated an attack in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

The poster also features the logo of a group called Al-Mursalat, a group affiliated to ISIS. Indian and Bangladesh sleuths are investigating the matter as the threat has been issued in the middle of poll season in India and West Bengal will witness another three phases of polls, sources informed.

Ever since ISIS inspired the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in 2016, Bangladesh has been on alert as local terror outfit JMB and Hizbut Tahrir have developed links with ISIS.

JMB operatives have been known to recruit and establish hideouts in various parts of West Bengal and neighboring states. Three years ago, local JMB sleeper cells had put up posters in several districts of West Bengal asking the youth to join the terrorist organization. A Bangladeshi-origin businessman who was formerly with Army and currently residing in London is under scanner.

Reports have also emerged that armed gangs, potentially linked to Isis, are taking control in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh. People are being kidnapped and women are threatened with violence.

Bangladesh officials are worried about extremist recruitment among the nearly 900,000 refugees, who have already fled violence in Myanmar from both the government and extreme Buddhists. In 2017, terrorists who pledged to ISIS in the Philippines held an entire island hostage for nearly five months. Over 1,000 people were killed in the battle to retain the main city.