ISIS Says Dhaka Cafe Slaughter a Glimpse of What’s Coming

An ISIS fighter in a video said that Bangladesh must recognise it was now part of a bigger battlefield.

Bangladeshi women outside the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant on 2 July, 2016. (Photo: AP)

The Islamic State has warned of repeated attacks in Bangladesh and beyond until rule by sharia, Islamic law, is established, saying in a video that last week’s attack in a Dhaka cafe was merely a glimpse of what is to come.

Five Bangladesh militants, most from wealthy, liberal families, stormed the upmarket restaurant on Friday and murdered customers, majority of them foreigners, from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, before they were gunned down.

A man identified as Bangladeshi fighter Abu Issa al-Bengali, in the video monitored by SITE intelligence site, said:

What you witnessed in Bangladesh ... was a glimpse. This will repeat, repeat and repeat until you lose and we win and sharia is established throughout the world.

Bangladesh has rejected the ISIS’ claim that they were responsible for Friday’s attack and blamed it on a domestic militant group.

‘Jihad Under Shade of Caliphate’

ISIS and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year in Bangladesh. The government has also dismissed those claims.

The IS video began with pictures of recent attacks in Paris, Brussels and Orlando in the United States that the militants have claimed responsibility for.

The fighter in the video, who spoke in both Bengali and English, said Bangladesh must know that it was now part of a bigger battlefield to establish a cross-border “caliphate.”

From a busy street in the militant group’s de facto capital of Raqqa, in Syria, he said:

I want to tell the rulers of Bangladesh that the jihad you see today is not the same that you knew in the past. The jihad that is waged today is a jihad under the shade of the Caliphate.

Though Bangladesh has rejected the ISIS claim of responsibility for Friday’s attack, police said they were stepping up security in response to the video threat.

We are taking this issue seriously. All our concerned units are working tirelessly.

<b> Shahidur Rahman, Deputy Police Inspector General</b>

Privileged, Educated Young Men Carried Out the Attack

Police believe the domestic Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS, played a significant role in organising the band of privileged, educated young men who carried out the attack.

Police have said they are hunting for six members of the group suspected to have helped the attackers.

But foreign security experts say the scale and sophistication of the attack on the Holey Artisan bakery cafe pointed to some level of guidance from international militant groups.

Officials in Dhaka said on Tuesday police commandos had mistakenly shot dead a restaurant chef during the operation to end the siege.

HT Imam, a political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also said security officials had seen online warnings about an impending attack on Friday and ordered major hotels and restaurants in the neighbourhood of the cafe shut.

But they missed the actual target, he said.

(This story has been published in arrangement with Reuters.)

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