Al-Qaeda condemns murder of Bangladesh police officer’s wife, ‘ploy’ to blame Jihadists: SITE

Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has condemned the recent murder of a police officer’s wife saying it is “impermissible under Islam”, SITE Intelligence Group reports.

Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh chapter of AQIS, released a statement also condemning a “ploy to blame Jihadists”, SITE said on Friday.

“Ansar Al-Islam Calls Mahmuda Aktar’s Murder Impermissible, Condemns “Ploy” To Blame Jihadists” reads the title of the SITE report.

Murdered Mahmuda Aktar Mitu’s husband Superintendent of Police Babul Aktar was involved in several successful anti-militancy raids in Chittagong.

Mahmuda was assassinated last Sunday. A CCTV camera caught three persons fleeing on a motorcycle after stabbing and shooting her in a chillingly similar fashion followed in previous attacks carried out by suspected Islamic Militants.

Police arrested a ‘former Islami Chhatra Shibir activist’ at Hathazari on Wednesday over the murder.

“Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh division of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), released a statement condemning the June 5, 2016 killing of Mahmuda Aktar, the wife of Bangladeshi anti-terror investigator Superintendent Babul Aktar, as impermissible under Islam,” SITE reported.

bdnews24.com could not independently verify the report.

Babul’s investigations led to the busting of a hideout of banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and the arrest of its military wing chief Md Javed in October last year.

The JMB leader died a day later in a grenade explosion when police made him accompany them in a raid on a JMB hideout he had disclosed to them.

Babul Aktar was promoted in April this year and was transferred to the headquarters in Dhaka, but his family lived in Chittagong.

Police said that Mahmuda was on her way to drop off her first-grader son to a bus stop for school when she was attacked.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal earlier said Islamist militants were behind the murder. “Babul Aktar is an efficient officer and played a key role in apprehending militants. They killed his wife because they failed to get him,” he said.

The intelligence group SITE’s report comes on a day when police launched a countrywide crackdown against militancy and terrorism.

Over 1,000 suspected militants were detained on the first day on Friday.

AQIS last claimed the murders of LGBT rights activist and US embassy official Xulhaz Mannan and his theatre activist friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy in April.

The murders followed the killing of Rajshahi University teacher Prof AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, who was hacked to death on his way to catch a bus to the campus on Apr 23. The AQIS claimed it was behind the murder.

The first murder it claimed was that of secular author Avijit Roy, killed by machete-wielding assailants while leaving the Amar Ekushey Book Fair with his wife in February last year.

But the government has been denying that global terror groups were behind the series of killings. Law enforcers have failed to make a headway into the investigations.