Agencies allay fears, say no new poster issued by ISIS Bangladesh

Kolkata: Security agencies tracking the ISIS Bangladesh group have said that the outfit did not issue any new poster last week, allaying concerns that a terror attack replicating the Sri Lanka template could be made in Bengali-speaking regions of the Indian subcontinent.

A photo in circulation on the Telegram channel of ISIS Bangladesh, purportedly pointing to increased terror activity soon in either West Bengal or Bangladesh, represents the display picture of the outfit, security experts told ET. The channel has been in existence since 2014, and it was last active in November, 2018.

Security sources also said that members of the group had begun discussions on other platforms highlighting recent Indian media reports that linked the old channel’s profile picture and impending terror threat in regions where Bengali is the primary language.

A senior official at Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force said: “This is a general e-poster that has been used by the ISIS (Bangladesh chapter). This poster always comes ahead of any video or audio release on Al Mursalat and Al Munadi media. This was last noticed in November, 2018. According to the information we have regarding this, Al Mursalat is being run by Abu Dujana Al Bangalee.”

Officials at central probe agencies also corroborated these findings.



A source in a central police agency said: “The group had around 200 members and Abu Dujana Al Bangalee was the admin. They used to post pro-ISIS videos and other posters through this channel. They also supported migration of Rohingyas to India and Bangladesh. However, in the past five months, no activity was noticed in this particular channel.

But we are not ruling out any possibility. We are trying to locate the server for other such forums and also from where the post was originated.”

In March, 2016, NIA, as part of its operations against the ISIS chapter in India, arrested Ashiq Ahmed, an 18-year old student of a private poly-technique college in Durgapur in Burdwan district. He was picked up by a special team of NIA from his lodgings near the Panagarh military base in the state.

During the course of investigation, it was revealed that Ahmed had an active link with the ISIS (India chapter) that is affiliated to groups in Syria.