'Wasn’t fortunate enough to find IS'

There was no trace of so-called Islamic State in Bangladesh, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said, even though the group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that killed six people in Sylhet.   

He was at Dhaka’s Rajarbagh Police Lines on Sunday to pay tribute to police personnel martyred during Bangladesh’s freedom struggle. 

“We want to see this IS, if it’s here. We want to identify [suspects] as IS members. But so far we did not have that fortune.”

The blasts in Sylhet occurred near a militant hideout where an army commando operation was underway on Saturday.
 
It was the third incident in Bangladesh in eight days for which the Middle East-based extremist group reportedly claimed credit.
 
The earlier incidents include a blast outside the Dhaka international airport on Friday. The other blast took place after a suicide bomber climbed over the wall of a RAB camp in nearby Ashkona on Mar 17. 

The alleged attackers were the only ones who were in these attempts. 

The Islamic State had taken credit for many of the attacks that took place between the start of 2015 and mid-2016.
 
The government and law-enforcing agencies denied the claims. It was said that the attacks were being carried out by home-grown militants from the revived Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) or Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT).

Asked if any top militant leader is holed up in the Sylhet den, the home minister said, “Maybe. We can’t say for sure before the raid ends.”

“Anything is possible and anyone can be inside. We believe there is someone (militant leader) inside,” he added.
 
The army on Sunday evening said two militants were killed and more ‘well-trained’ ones were still inside the hideout. Seventy-eight civilians were rescued from the hideout amid intensified explosions and gunfire on Saturday. 

The home minister said the “skilled members of the law-enforcing agencies were working with patriotic inspiration”. 

“No one has ever claimed that militancy was entirely uprooted. What we are saying is that the conspirators are active and they will do it again whenever they get the chance. Our security forces are always alert to the matter,” he added.  

Source: bdnews24