Islamic State releases new video featuring Dhaka cafe attackers

The Islamic State (IS) has released a new video featuring the five attackers of the Dhaka cafe who justified the July 1 terror siege and criticised Bangladesh's democratic system and political leadership.

In the 15-minute video message released on Friday night, both in Bangla and Arabic, the terrorist group called on jihadis to launch armed attacks on "atheists, apostates and crusaders" as revenge for the "persecution" of IS fighters in Iraq and Syria and elsewhere.

The five terrorists in the video came down heavily on Islamic scholars for resisting Muslims from joining the armed jihad of the IS, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

The video was first released by the official IS media channel, Arabic Nashir, on Telegram.

Earlier in the day, IS' Bangla media At-Tamkin made an announcement on its website that they would release a video produced by the "Bilad al-Bengal media office". Bilad, in this context, means province or region.

The video, believed to have been recorded sometime before the Gulshan attack, was released less than a month after the law enforcers killed the attack's mastermind Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury or Sheikh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif on August 27.

The attackers - Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Khairul Islam Payel, Shafiqul Islam Uzzal and Meer Saameh Mubasser - were killed in a commando operation on July 2 after they attacked the upscale cafe in the diplomatic enclave of Dhaka, claiming the lives of 22 persons, mostly foreigners.

Police launched a crackdown on militants after the two terror attacks -- Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen (July 1) and Sholakia Eid congregation (July 7) -- and have so far killed at least 31 members of the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has links to the IS.

The government maintains there is no organisational base of IS in Bangladesh, and that the attacks were carried out by a faction of banned militant group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

--IANS

ss/rn