I/III. http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/local-al-qaeda-claims-february-murder-of-us-citizen-in-bangladesh-intelligence-group-760254
Local Al-Qaeda Claims February Murder of US Citizen in Bangladesh: Intelligence Group World | Reuters | Updated: May 04, 2015 07:30 IST Local Al-Qaeda Claims February Murder of US Citizen in Bangladesh: Intelligence Group File Photo: Bangladeshi secular activists take part in a torch-lit protest against the killing of US blogger of Bangladeshi origin and founder of the Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog site, Avijit Roy. (AFP photo) DHAKA, BANGLADESH: The leader of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility for the murder of a US citizen hacked to death in Bangladesh in February and the deaths of other "blasphemers" in the region, SITE Intelligence Group reported on Sunday. Bangladeshi police stood by their assessment that the murder of blogger Avijit Roy, a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was the work of a local militant group called Ansarullah Bangla Team which claimed responsibility shortly after the attack. RELATED Al Qaeda Branch Claims Murder of Bangladesh-Born US Blogger 'Embarrassing' Pakistan Need Wholesale Revamp: Rameez Raja India Seeks UN Intervention on 26/11 Mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi's Release "Now we have to investigate whether this Team is working as the branch of al Qaeda," said Dhaka police chief Muhammad Habibur Rahman. Avijit, who wrote a blog that highlighted humanist and rationalist ideas and condemned religious extremism, was hacked to death in Dhaka on Feb. 26. His family said radical Islamists were to blame. SITE, which monitors Internet messages posted by jihadist groups, said AQIS leader Asim Umar made his claim in a 9-minute video, listing several people killed in Bangladesh and Pakistan. (c) Thomson Reuters 2015 II/III. http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bloggers-murder-alqaeda-claims-responsibility/article7168071.ece Updated: May 4, 2015 08:24 IST Blogger's murder: al-Qaeda claims responsibility HAROON HABIB COMMENT · PRINT · T T inShare A file photo of slain blogger Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed Banna. Photo: Special Arrangement A file photo of slain blogger Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed Banna. Photo: Special Arrangement TOPICS World Bangladesh crime murder unrest, conflicts and war act of terror Avijit Roy, a bio-engineer by profession, was hacked to death by assailants with machetes on the streets of Dhaka in February. The offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Indian sub-continent has claimed responsibility for the killing of secular Bangladesh-U.S. Writer-blogger Avijit Roy who was killed in Dhaka on February 26 this year. AQIS leader Asim Umar said his organisation was responsible for the attack in a video posted on jihadist forums on Saturday, according to SITE, a U.S. website that monitors extremist groups. Avijit Roy, a bio-engineer by profession, had been threatened on social media for his secular writings. He was hacked to death by assailants with machetes on the streets of the capital Dhaka in February. Critically injured, Avijit's wife Bonya survived the attack. In February last year, a purported audio tape from Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri dubbed Bangladesh government "anti-Islam and secular". He called on Bangladeshi Muslims to "wage a battle to protect Islam". III. http://indianexpress.com/article/world/neighbours/al-qaeda-branch-claims-murder-of-bangladesh-born-us-blogger-avijit-roy/99/ MONDAY, MAY 04, 2015 Al Qaeda Indian Subcontinent branch claims murder of Bangladesh-born US blogger Avijit Roy The statement by al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent also referred to another statement by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claiming responsibility for the killing of of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists. (Source: AP) Written by Praveen Swami | New Delhi | Updated: May 4, 2015 6:28 am Asim Umar, the Indian-born head of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks that killed several secular writers and intellectuals in Bangladesh and Pakistan, including Avijit Roy who was hacked to death on a Dhaka street in February. "Like the companions of the Prophet who defended him with their lives," Umar said in a statement that was released online over the weekend, "the mujahideen of al-Qaeda have despatched to hell many who blasphemed against God, and insulted the Prophet." ALSO READ: 84 on hitlist, 8 killed: Dhaka's politics drives cycle of death In addition to Roy, Umar named slain Bangladeshi intellectual Ahmad Rajib Haidar and Rajshahi University scholar AKM Shaiful Islam as victims of al-Qaeda hit squads. His statement also claimed the killing of Karachi University Islamic Studies scholar Shakeel Auj, assassinated last year while on his way to a meeting with Iranian diplomats. Auj had been condemned by Islamist clerics in Karachi for is purportedly blasphemous views. RELATED 84 On Hitlist, 8 Killed: Dhaka's Politics Drives Cycle Of Death Three Arrested In Bangladesh Raid After Blogger Avijit Roy's Murder Bangladeshi Blogger Avijit Roy Hacked To Death By Extremists, Group Claims Responsibility The statement also mentioned an Urdu blogger Aneeka Naz as a victim. Naz, an academic, was reported killed in a 2012 car traffic accident, in which her husband was injured. Naz is not known to have held contentious political views. "From Waziristan to Charlie Hebdo, this war is one," Umar said, "whether it is waged upon us with drones or with Charlie Hebdo's pen, with the International Monetary Fund or World Bank's policies, or with the satanic conspiracy of Kerry-Lugar bill, which sought to humiliate the believers, or whether it is waged with the hate-filled words of Narendra Modi, which call for Muslims to be burned live." (Video loading...) "In France, Denmark, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries, enemies of the Prophet are slandering him with words which makes the hearts of the followers of Allah run cold, and the hearts of hypocrites glow." The statement by al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent also referred to another statement by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claiming responsibility for the killing of of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists. Bangladesh police investigators, The Indian Express had reported earlier this year, attributed the killings of Roy, Haider and Islam to an al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Ansarullah Bengali Team. Ansarullah's death squad, alleged to be led by North-South University Student Redwanul Rana, is said to have compiled a list of 84 progressive intellectuals for assassination, eight of whom have been killed so far. OPINION: 'Baba planted seeds of independent thinking in my mind' Late last year, an Ansarullah Bengali-language video, 'Eradicate Democracy', asked Bangaldesh's "patriotic armed forces" to rise against the government and set up a Caliphate in Bangladesh. Few details have become available on Ansarullah's precise links to al-Qaeda, though video of its cadre training in Pakistan has been released in the past. Umar's statement also eulogises a Bangladeshi jihadist it says has been killed in a drone strike in Pakistan's North Waziristan, though he is identified only by a pseudonym. The video also holds out tantalising clues to Umar's Indian origins--notably his use of the word Sahukar for capitalists, a word rarely used by native Urdu or Punjabi speakers. Believed to be a graduate of the famous Dar-ul-Uloom seminary in Deoband, with family roots in both Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, Umar is thought by India's intelligence services to have migrated to Pakistan in the 1990s. In the following years, Umar studied at the Jamia Uloom-e-Islamia, a Karachi seminary that has produced several top jihadist leaders, including Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, Qari Saifullah Akhtar, who headed the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, and Fazl-ur-Rehman Khalil, the leader of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Umar, intelligence sources say , was mentored by Nizamuddin Shamzai, a cleric with close links to the Taliban, who once bragged about having been a "state guest" in Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar's Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Following studies in Karachi, Maulana Umar is believed to have joined Fazl-ur-Rehman Khalil's Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, teaching briefly at the Dar-ul-Uloom Haqqania seminary in Akhora Khattak, and serving at the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen's training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He emerged as major Islamist ideologue in Pakistan, producing several best-selling books propagating the idea that jihad would lead to an apoclyptic war that would, in turn, hasten the coming of judgment day. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
