Govt tracing 'al-Qaeda threat'

Bangladesh government is investigating the authenticity of the audio message by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.

If the investigation reveals it is true, the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami’s ‘link with international militancy’ will be proved, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam adds.

Both Kamal and Alam are, however, unfazed by the threat, saying Bangladesh is capable of handling such a threat.

When asked by reporters how the government was seeing the message, Kamal said at the Secretariat on Sunday, “We are not seeing it as a threat because people in Bangladesh will not allow terror to take root.

“The countries with such issues (al-Qaeda activity) usually have locals who support their cause. But our people are with us. They don’t want insurgency, terror and al-Qaeda in their country.”

The State Minister for Home said Bangladesh’s armed forces and law-enforcing agencies had the capacity to counter any militancy threat.

“We have training in counter-terrorism. We can combat all forms of threat,” he added.

The security agencies were also coordinating with international organisations to prevent terrorism, Khan said.

An audio message purportedly delivered by Zawahiri was circulating on the Internet calling on Muslims in Bangladesh to wage jihad against the enemies of Islam.

Zawahiri in the clip interprets the Bengali struggle for freedom from Pakistan in a way that is chillingly similar to the one offered by the Jamaat.

He is heard charging the government with killing ‘thousands of people’ during last year’s crackdown on the violent rally by Hifazat-e Islam at Dhaka’s Motijheel, echoing the claims by the Chittagong-based outfit along with the BNP and the Jamaat.

The audio tape also expresses anger over the trial of suspected war criminals, most of them belonging to Jamaat, the party that had opposed independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The then Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shangha leaders and activists were directly and indirectly involved in genocide, rapes, plundering and arson during the war.

State Minister Shahriar Alam told a press conference on Sunday: “The Jamaat had also opposed the independence (of Bangladesh) propagating the liberation war as anti-Islamic. This message matches the Jamaat propaganda.”

Asked whether the al-Qaeda had any network in Bangladesh, Alam said, “Not at all. The network that had existed in the country has been razed to the ground in the last five years.”

On the question of whether the al-Qaeda was being used to create pressure on Bangladesh, Alam said, “This is no pressure because every country has taken a stance against such terrorist outfit.”

“This may be a global plot. But first, we have to determine the authenticity of the audiotape,” he said.