Bangladesh ISIS claims responsibility for attack on Dhaka police station

The Bangladesh wing of ISIS on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the attack on the Pallabi Police Station in Dhaka that injured five people including four police personnel. According to news agency IANS, a bomb exploded at around 6 am when officer-in-charge of the police station was interrogating three terrorists.

The explosion occurred from the weight machine, IANS reported quoting police officials. The officer-in-charge (Investigation) of the police station and three other cops were injured in the blast, it added.

The police had recovered the weight machine and bomb from three persons in the morning. Additional Police Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan, Krishna Pada Roy had said, "An explosion occurred inside the police station when the bomb disposal unit was working, leaving four cops and a boy injured." He added, "August has always been an alarming month for us, as bombings in August 1975 and 2004, have rocked the country earlier."

A criminal gang based in Mirpur is active, who can carry out these terrorist activities, a police official said. Naldanga police station OC Nazrul Islam said, "A team has recovered a bomb-like object from Kalshi graveyard earlier in the morning. They brought it to the police station. We informed a bomb disposal unit to neutralise it. However, it exploded before the unit could reach the police station."

Two of the injured police officials were shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and one at the National Eye Institute. Two others were given first aid.

On July 27, Zee News had reported quoting intelligence agencies that the Bangladesh ISIS or the neo-JMB is likely to announce its new wing 'Bengal Ulayat' and would target government establishments.

The police headquarters has received intel inputs that this new wing of ISIS could target police establishments, government establishments and foreign missions or embassies in the country ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha scheduled to be held on August 1, 2020.

Acting on the intel, several units like the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC), Anti-Terrorism Unit and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) was put on highest alert.

A senior official of the Intelligence Unit said, “We have received inputs that they could be planning to carry out subversive activities while announcing their new unit. We have alerted all our units including our special units and are taking all precautionary measures.”

However, the Telegram channels affiliated to Bangla ISIS, like Al Mursalat, At Tamkin which shares messages or new announcements of wings have remained inactive since March this year. While these Telegram channels share messages like ‘coming soon’ and other video messages have not had any new posts for four months.