CTTC in #Bangladesh has filed a chargesheet in relation to its investigation into the jihadi carnage at Holey Artisan Bakery in July 2016. Read on for facts that are *not* cited in the chargesheet. This, to record the truth about the July 1, 2016 attack.
Fact # 1: The attack was carried out by the Bangladeshi affiliate of ISIS: Dawlatul Islam Bengal. That ISIS was behind the attack was proven very early on when Amaq started posting about the attack *and* when it posted pictures of dead hostages.
Fact # 2: The attack was planned and coordinated by Candadian-Bangladeshi jihadi Tamim Ahmed Chowdury, who is named in the chargesheet. That Tamim aka Abu Dujanah al-Bengali was the "head of military and covert operations" of ISIS in Bangladesh is *not* noted in the chargesheet.
Fact # 3: Tamim aka Abu Dujanah was reporting directly to Australian-Bangladshi jihadi ATM Tajuddin aka Abu Saad al-Bengali in Raqqa, Syria. It was Tajuddin who reviewed and okayed the plan of slaughtering foreigners at Holey Artisan...
... ATM Tajuddin aka Abu Saad -- who is not named in the chargesheet -- is *most likely* the Asia Division ameer of ISIS' external operations wing. In other words, Tajuddin is most likely the Bangladeshi ameer of Emni mentioned by Rukmini Callimachi here:
Fact # 4: Also not named in the chargesheet is Japanese-Bangladeshi jihadi Sajit Debnath aka Saifullah Ozaki aka Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif: the ameer of ISIS in Bangladesh. Read more about him here:
Fact # 5: The 5 attackers were all members of ISIS: Abu Rahiq al-Bengali, Abu Muharib al-Bengali, Abu Salamah al-Bengali, Abu Umayr al-Bengali, Abu Muslim al-Bengali.
Fact # 6: There is *no* jihadi group named "Neo JMB" or "New JMB" or "JMB (Sarwar-Tamim group)" in Bangladesh. All of these are fake names concocted by police and RAB. See here for a comment on this by none other than JMB's ameer Shaikh Salahuddin:
Fact # 7: *Dawlatul Islam Bengal* is the Bangladesh affiliate of ISIS, involved in the Holey Artisan attack. Watch this clip where the RAB spokesman Mufti Mahmud confirms the name...
Fact # 8: Tamim Ahmed Chowdury's lieutenant Nurul Islam Marjan (a key witness, participant) was detained by CTTC; kept in *secret custody*; and was then executed. @davidbangladesh wrote about this here:
Fact # 9: Another major figure who is not named is ISIS propagandist Tahmid Rahman Shafi aka Abu Issa al-Bengali. He work(ed/s) for Al-Hayat Media Center and was responsible for producing two Bengali videos about the Holey Artisan attack. In July 2016, he was in Raqqa.
And *FACT*: Bangladesh government and its security agencies failed terribly in thwarting the Holey Artisan attack of July 2016. Now CTTC, in its investigation, has omitted key information and conconted some details to cover up that failure. //
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I have been talking to survivors of the recent attacks in Dhaka (from Mirpur to Dhanmondi to Bashundhara) since yesterday and the evidence is just flooding in.
There is overwhelming evidence of how BCL (student wing of ruling AL) took over the streets and terrorised, brutalised, bloodied everyone from school children to university students, with a clear aim of scaring the peaceful protesters off the streets.
The campaign of engineering fear among regular, general students is ongoing as I write (and as you read) this post.
One of those WTH moments. When I first saw this photo this morning, my jaw dropped. One of the top al-Qaeda/Ansar al-Islam ideologues in #Bangladesh, visiting a #Rohingya refugee camp, in broad daylight 🤨 And posting about it on Facebook 🤪
So this is Maulana Muhammad Ishak Khan, an AQIS/Ansar leader whom I interviewed once and had correspondence with on and off. Khan is the Bengali translator and publisher of Anwar al-Awalaki's lectures. He is also a top lieutenant of Jasimuddin Rahmani.
My interview with Khan was focused on Bangladeshi followers of Awlaki. That was back in 2016. He was (most likely) hiding in Malaysia then, and touring through the region, hosted by the jihadis there. Here is Khan somewhere in Indonesia
Thread: interesting development in Bangla jihad front. Bangladesh police now saying Shahjahan Bacchu (publisher, freethinker, atheist) was killed by JMB (real, not the fake one). The kicker? Police has already executed the prime suspect. This was first reported by @labu8080
According to a report in BT, "the main plotter" of the assassination Abdur Rahman was arrested on June 24. He was killed by the police in a *gunfight* (euphemism for extrajudicial execution) last night (Wednesday, June 27).
Abdur Rahman was a member/leader of JMB and apparently interrogated at some length by regular police and CTTC. He was killed only after "all important details" were "extracted from him". We will never know the details, since this is not going to court, just like other cases :-/
I usually am very critical of #Bangladesh government and its security agencies. This time I will make an exception b/c how the GoB and BD police handled the jihadi threat and attack against Dr. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal is commendable. Credit must be given where credit is due.
This case is a good example of how the jihadi threat against Bangladeshi intellectuals *should be* handled. GoB and its LEA must offer protection to all Bangladeshi intellectuals (bloggers, writers, freethinkers) under jihadi threat, esp. from AQIS/Ansar, ISIS.
Three broad points re: state protection offered to Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (MZI).
First, Bangladeshi LEA took the jihadi threat against MZI seriously AND deployed a police detail round-the-clock for his protection. This did play a *huge role* in MZI's survival in the latest attack.
New report from @crisisgroup on Bangladeshi jihadi groups. IMHO, this one does not live up to the standard we saw in previous ICG reports on Bangladesh. Here I note the bad and good.
I will start with the most glaring mistake in the report. That is how it presents the ISIS position re: Rohingya. The report cites an April 2016 interview in Dabiq and claims: "a Bangladeshi ISIS commander [sounded] a rallying cry to fight for Rohingya rights" 🤦♂️
Anyone who has read that Dabiq (# 14) interview (with Sajit Debnath aka Saifullah Ozaki aka Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif) knows that this claim (of "rallying cry") is demonstrably false. I am actually quite surprised to see such a serious misreading of jihadi messaging in an ICG report.