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ISIS Claims Dhaka Cafe Attack Is Just A ‘Glimpse’ Of What The Terror Group Has Planned — Bangladesh Insists It Was Domestic Militant Group

Published on: July 6, 2016 at 12:09 PM
By Alap Naik Desai

ISIS has warned about more attacks similar to the Dhaka cafe massacre. The terror group has issued an ominous threat about attacks that will be far worse than what the group orchestrated in Bangladesh. The group insists that the attacks would be swift and relentless until Sharia law is established “throughout the world”

In a video released following the attack on a cafe frequented by foreigners in the capital city of Bangladesh, Islamic State stated the group intends to establish sharia law throughout the world and was prepared to carry out many such strikes in multiple countries. The group added that last week’s killing of 20 people in a Dhaka cafe was merely a glimpse of what is to come.

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

Last week, militants reportedly belonging to ISIS attacked a cafe in the heart of Dhaka. The restaurant, which is frequented by foreigners, was packed at the time owing to the holy month of Ramadan. It is believed the militants, five in number, were armed with light weapons, perhaps to make mobility easier. They reportedly held multiple people as hostages and demanded they recite verses from Quran, the holy book of Islam, the Inquisitr reported. Those who could babble even a few incoherent verses were pardoned, while those who couldn’t were tortured and massacred.

The majority of the 20 people who died were foreigners from Italy, Japan, India, and the United States, reported Reuters . The attack was undoubtedly one of the deadliest Bangladesh had witnessed. Experts have been condemning the local government and security forces for their sluggish response towards the attack as well as the delay in neutralizing the threat.

Incidentally, while the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or Daesh) has openly accepted the responsibility for the Dhaka cafe attack, the Bangladesh government has refuted the declaration. Rejecting the claims made by ISIS, the local government insists the attacks were orchestrated by a domestic militant group. During the standoff at the cafe, the government managed to capture one of the terrorists alive and is believed to be interrogating him. It is not clear what information the government has managed to gather so far.

Interestingly, ISIS, as well as al-Qaeda, has frequently claimed responsibility for a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year. But the government has regularly dismissed these claims, reported the Times of India . On each occasion, the country has firmly stated the attacks were the doing of local militant groups.

However, to date, the government hasn’t put forth any conclusive proof about the affiliations. While the government’s insistence that these attacks, executed by a handful of terrorists, could be carried out by local groups, it is quite likely they are operating under the guidance of these large organizations like ISIS or al-Qaeda. Police in the region suspect the attack on the Dhaka cafe might have been carried out by Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh. Incidentally, the group has already pledged allegiance to ISIS. Experts point out the sophistication of the attack, as well as the training the militants clearly had, couldn’t be obtained by local groups as further proof of a larger organization.

The video, obtained by a group that calls itself Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE), shows a person, identified as Bangladeshi fighter Abu Issa al-Bengali, speaking about the recent attacks in Paris, Brussels, and Orlando. The person warns Bangladesh that the country must have by now realized that it is a part of “bigger battlefield to establish the cross-border caliphate.”

“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.”

What the speaker clearly implied is that ISIS already considers Bangladesh a part of the Islamic State Caliphate, which the group proclaimed in 2014.

ISIS has been known to release such videos that warn about attacks. In the past, the terror group has threatened developed countries , including America and EU.

[Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images]

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