Bangladesh home minister says gunmen made no demands, IS not involved

No demands? The only goal then was to kill as many people as possible, regardless of if they lived or died.

Asked about the photos, the minister pointed to a wall behind him and said: “If I fix a poster of IS here and stand with a machine gun, will it establish that IS is here?”

This guy is correct. It's in Daesh's best interest to claim responsibility for whichever attacks they can, and if the attackers claim affiliation, it makes it that much easier for them. Same as what happened in Florida.

What a strange response, "we reject IS's claim they were involved, it is home grown extremism".

Its strikes me as a little odd, oh we don't have that particular brand of radical islam, we have our own.. like it somehow makes it less of a problem..

Oh and for the next disingenuous person that says, but this has nothing to do with the tenants of islam, these people aren't real muslims, once again, who are you to decide who is and isn't a muslim, these people said they were.. and

"The Bangladeshis were later told to close their eyes and recite verses from the Koran. One militant cursed a Bangladeshi for eating with non-Muslims during Ramadan, the source said."

If it is a completely separate group I think it only goes more to show the point that there are dangerous ideas in not this religion but others too, that its ok, or even good to kill those who don't believe what you do, and that your belief is worth more than other peoples lives and freedom, when the only fight worth having should be to ensure the freedom, safety and equality of as many people as possible.

At the time when the communism was popular, it was the receiver of the discontented populations. The communism was better than the troubles involving religions today. The former was rational while the latter is irrational.

It’s clear to me it was Islamic extremists who carried out his horrific slaughter of innocent lives. On the final Friday (holy day) in Ramadan, what message are they sending about their religion and their religious beliefs?

Given that Bangladesh is a highly factionalized, neo-feudal state that has been run by corrupt families for generations, who knows which faction these murders could be attributed to. It could be they’re ‘foreign agents’, or part of one of the domestic gangs, or even sponsored by one of the ruling families.

I’m sure the various ruling families will plead for more aid to ‘fight terrorism’, but the sceptic in me says history shows most of that aid will go directly into the pockets of the rulers - so they can fatten their Swiss bank accounts and buy more property in Europe. The war on terror has enriched corrupt leaders worldwide.

If Japan, the US, UK, Australia, etc. are going to continue to send their respective citizen's tax dollars to countries like Bangladesh, I hope they’re able to do so while bypassing the greedy ruling families. Maybe the aforementioned countries should just keep their moneys at home. It’s India’s sphere of influence, and to a large degree China’s, too.

Homegrown or not, ISIS/ISIL coordinated or not; the point is it is Islamic terrorism that is in their country. The fact is their country is the 3rd Muslim dominated (population) country in the world. (per Wikipedia)

Rank Country Population Muslim% Sect State Religion Type/Gov 1 Indonesia 228,582,000 86.1% Sunni None Presidential republic 2 Pakistan 172,800,000 97% Sunni/Shi’a Islamic - sharia Parliamentary democracy 3 Bangladesh 162,221,000 89% Sunni Secular Parliamentary democracy 4 Nigeria 154,279,000 50% Sunni None Presidential Federal Republic 5 Egypt 77,100,000 90% Sunni State religion Semi-presidential republic

Whether organized by ISIS/ISIL or not, the fact is there are religious leaders (Imams) within their country that are interpreting the Jihad to their youths regardless of their level of education or wealth.

The fact is, the youths were able to arm themselves with powerful weapons. The fact is, it was directed against non - Muslims. The fact is, it was during Ramadan. Something is amiss there. What are they trying to "deny"?

So far from every terror incident throughout the world, we know that there were sympathizers and supporters that helped and allowed such things to occur. It is time that every nation, Islamic or not, to think about who are really involved in what kind of systematic network, and how such activities are being hidden and organized. It cannot be just over the social media and the internet. It is much too well organized and coordinated.

If this is a religious war as it has become much too obvious, those who are not Muslims or Muslims not "in" with the new order of Islam regardless of Islamic sect, must become aware and work together to combat and resolve this threat. Or are they already aware and working together for a new world order?

It certainly gives people of other religions to think twice about Islam and the Muslim population. That is extremely dangerous for humanity and mankind.

Interestingly, looking at the chart; to begin with, Obama is of Indonesian decent, lived there during his youth and even has relatives there. There was a big controversy over that some years ago, so I remember. And he is the most powerful individual in the world today that denies Jihad but does not deny Sharia law. And... interestingly all this started (timing wise) with his Presidency.

But then, I am second guessing and taking it too far. However, given the situation, I do let my mind wander more than normal. After all, our lives are definitely at stake. We travel at least twice a year between Japan and the USA and such incidents do concern me.

the minister pointed to a wall behind him and said: “If I fix a poster of IS here and stand with a machine gun, will it establish that IS is here?”

Well, yes. That's where so many politicians are missing the point. IS is using the terrorist equivalent of crowd-sourcing. We will see many more attacks by homegrown lone operatives who claim allegiance to IS. Who is the minister to question the murderers' stated motives for this atrocity? As in Orlando, you have some twisted little minds that are directed to do harm by the dictates of IS. This is the case even if they have never met IS in person. That's the magic of the internet.

For the minister to say it's not IS is just a way to avoid addressing the issue. Without IS online activities egging on the perpetrators, it is quite likely that these mass murders would not have occurred.

What a strange thing to say. Being a home grown and IS affiliated/inspired terrorist are not mutually exclusive. Most terrorist acts we have seen in the last few years in London, Paris, Brussels, Istanbul etc were committed by home grown would be terrorists who first got radicalised on home soil, then trained (or not) in Syria then came back home to kill.

Whether they had the IS official stamp or were 'only' inspired by them or were part of a satellite of IS is imo not that relevant: they reject Western values and kill in the name Islam. Their official brand is anecdotal.

They published their goal before they died - at the same time as the photos with the ISIS flags. They said their goal was "to rid the world of atheists and apostates".

goldorakJUL. 04, 2016 - 10:02AM JST Whether they had the IS official stamp or were 'only' inspired by them or were part of a satellite of IS is imo not that relevant: they reject Western values and kill in the name Islam. Their official brand is anecdotal.

I suppose it depends on your purpose in looking at the information. If your purpose is to exploit the pain and suffering of innocent people in order to superficially summarize the event and then say, "see, I told you Muslims were bad!" then you're right, it's not that relevant if these terrorists weren't actually connected with ISIS. If your purpose is to actually understand the complexities that drive our world so you can make informed choices to best fight terrorism, especially in the Bangladeshi context, it kinda matters a lot.

Where these people got their support from is critical to every aspect of the investigation. It affects where the authorities investigate, it affects which networks they gather intelligence from, hell, it may even affect which language they do the investigation in. It also affects which preventative measures the Bangladeshi authorities should take. Do they watch international travel more closely or do they look at aggressive talk within their own community? Do they target local terror leaders for arrest or do they support international efforts to topple terror leaders in lawless regions like ISIS-claimed territory? Governments have limited resources available to fight terrorism so they have to make their choices as smartly with as much information as they can.

Now, of course if you have some kind of evidence that Asaduzzaman Khan is lying, by all means, share it. That kind of information would be extremely informative and add much to the conversation. But absent evidence, there are not too many random commentators on the Internet who have superior intelligence and investigative assets to the Bangladeshi government, so I'm not too inclined to just take the word of random anonymous voices in the peanut gallery.

Understandably they would deny. The dead were there for peaceful reason and what they got is very much contrary to what they were doing for the whole of Bangladesh. They were worries perhaps that Japan would cut off the aid and stop sending people to oversee the implementation of their economic program. Japan has good intention to help. As they say you don't give pearls to the pigs. Their good intention will be greatly appreciated if it is just given to me.

Katsu nice post although you tend to extrapolate a lot!

re you choosing to believe the Bangladesh government when they say IS are not involved, I think you are being gullible. Dont forget that both IS themselves and Aqma news agency have claimed responsibility.

Also, It is in the government's interest to deny IS is involved not only for internal political reasons but also in order to not scare foreign investors. I am not the only one to say that, its well documented on most news sites. The Bangladeshi govt is one of the most corrupt around so yes, I would not be surprised if they were trying to minimise and 'bend' the truth to suit their agenda. But you are free to believe them.

goldorakJUL. 04, 2016 - 12:46PM JST ... I think you are being gullible.

Interesting that in the face of contradictory claims between a terrorist organization with a known history of claiming responsibility for attacks it has at best a tenuous connection with and a government which, though it may have corruption issues, also has investigative assets on the ground... you choose to believe the murderers.

Also that you claim I tend to "extrapolate a lot" just before inventing an elaborate and questionable rationale for why a government would lie about who is responsible for the terror attacks in their jurisdiction.

Of course we'll never know until the full evidence comes out, but in the mean time which group people choose to side with does tell us a lot about who they are and how they think. You can be someone who follows the evidence, or you can be someone who invents conspiracy theories to defend reductionist narratives about complex inter-cultural conflicts.

NZ2011. interesting point. The thing few want to consider rationally is that these people (IS, etc) may very well be what they believe themselves to be: followers of true Islam. Muhammad did establish, spread and police Islam by spilling an ocean of blood. Were muhammad and his armies just ISIS on horeseback? We may be missing the crucial key to understanding the reality of Islam by sticking to the religeon of peace narrative.

There was a big controversy over that some years ago, so I remember. And he is the most powerful individual in the world today that denies Jihad but does not deny Sharia law. And... interestingly all this started (timing wise) with his Presidency.

No, it was not a controversy. It was a fabricated "issue” floated by religious bigots and racists in a desperate effort to stem the tide of human progress. There's absolutely nothing interesting about your obvious comfort with spreading ridiculous lies. No one here is fooled by your contrived, Trump-esque, *"Oh, my, I've said too much." nonsense.

Strangerland

This guy is correct. It's in Daesh's best interest to claim responsibility for whichever attacks they can, and if the attackers claim affiliation, it makes it that much easier for them. Same as what happened in Florida.

you too are correct. Daesh claimed Orlando until they found out their hero was a closet homosexual. Suddenly they didn't expect him to be bonking 47 beautiful virgins so much. And good on you for calling them Daesh.

Outrider, I feel strongly until we are able to look at all things rationally and logically, without a veil of protection which I think religion often gets but rarely deserves, we are going to struggle to get anywhere.

Of course like all things is not simple, are economics part of it, is education part of it, is it partly other countries and cultures trying to remote control other territories, sure no doubt, lets have all of those discussions and work to bettering it, but to ignore the doctrine that is at the centre of these or any attacks seems to be to disregard the difference between protest and gun attacks, voting and hijacks, discussion and suicide bombs.

“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”

But Katsu, you are not "following the evidence" as you claim, you are blindly believing the version given by a notoriously corrupt govt.

You berated me in an earlier post (why the agro?) but as I said I am not the only one thinking IS is somehow involved (directly or not) in what happened there and that the govt is simply in denial. http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/bangladesh-in-denial-over-jihadist-attacks-analysts

"He (Khan) denied any link with ISIS but analysts said that stretched credibility. Taj Hashmi, a Bangladeshi who teaches security studies at Austin Peay State University in the US, said there could be "no ambiguity" that the attack was the work of ISIS.

"Bangladesh must admit that international Islamist networks are actively engaged in killing people in the country and they are not through yet," said Hashmi.

Mubashar Hasan, an expert on political Islam at Dhaka's Liberal Arts University, said the attack was not merely a local difficulty but was the latest in a line that stretched back to the bombings in New York and Washington on Sept 11, 2001.

"This is Bangladesh's 9/11. Bangladesh has now entered into the global war on terror," Hasan told AFP.

Critics have said the violence stems from the government's refusal to allow its opponents to operate freely in the political mainstream. Bangladesh's main Islamist party has been banned and most of its leaders have been arrested or else executed after recent trials over their role in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Opposition leader Khaleda Zia is facing a string of court cases for her role in violent anti-government protests. Zia's party boycotted the 2014 general election after Hasina refused to allow it to be overseen by a neutral caretaker government as in the past, and Hasan said growing extremism was an inevitable consequence. "A dysfunctional state and lack of democracy made it fertile ground for terrorism," said Hasan.

Columnist Zafar Sohban urged the government to end "its state of denial".

"It cannot continue to bury its head in the sand about the clear and convincing evidence of transnational links to domestic terror groups and operations," he wrote in the Dhaka Tribune.

Subhash Agrawal, of the Delhi-based India Focus political risk consultancy, said the recent arrests of thousands of Bangladeshis that the government says was organised to eradicate extremism had been counter-productive.

"She has been focusing on her political opponents and going after Begum Khaleda Zia's people while turning a blind eye to the alarming political and social polarisation in her country," Agrawal told AFP."

Thanks everyone for correcting my errors in facts and details.

The discussion has progressed to a point where it is much more realistic and relative to what has happened. I am finding out a lot more about the situation and circumstances in Bangladesh today. It also had me looking into their history and facts in Wikipedia and other sites.

Some people I know in the computer parts manufacturing industry go to India, Pakistan, Vietnam etc. frequently and regularly. They are extremely sensitive to the situation. They were more concerned with Chinese operations in the region more than ISIS or Islamic terrorists. Now they are concerned about both.

Hope things settle down or get resolved n that region in the near future for all concerned.

As for my personal statements, they are my personal opinions based on some observations that I thought were interesting. I am not and will not justify any of that to or for anyone.

The first step to solving a problem is accepting that there is one.

The Bangladeshi's still live in the fantasy of a secular, tolerant country which unfortunately does not exist. Like most Islamic countries Bangladesh has been been slowly sliding into fundamentalism.

The IS is not a registered corporate entity that only if its ID carrying members commit an act it will be credited to them.

Its an ideology of taking Islam back to how it was practiced in the barbaric times and since Islam has progressed little over the centuries there are more than enough people willing to take a few steps back and give up any semblance of humanity in them.

Turkey has already discovered how dangerous it is to have a double faced approach to dealing with these savages and unfortunately Bangladesh is heading that way.

goldorakJUL. 04, 2016 - 05:44PM JST But Katsu, you are not "following the evidence" as you claim, you are blindly believing the version given by a notoriously corrupt govt.

You should probably contemplate the difference between "blindly believing" and "not assuming someone to have lied simply because of the group they are from, and withholding judgement until I have evidence."

Now, you've done better in this latest post, but it's still not what I'd call convincing evidence - the opinions of people closer to Bangladesh I trust over random internet commentators, but that still doesn't prove their case.