The recent string of murders of foreigners were contract killings funded and backed by outside powers, the home minister said yesterday.
Dismissing claims that militant outfit Islamic State was responsible for the murders, Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the killings had been works of Jews who were organisers of the IS.
However, he did not elaborate about which country or foreign group might have instigated the murders.
Kamal made the comments at a discussion held between the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Islamic scholars at the capital’s Krishibid Institute auditorium.
The comments were made hours before a Pakistani diplomat left Dhaka amid allegations over her involvement in militant activities in Bangladesh.
The minister said that militants have started targeting Christian priests after failing to meet their goals through the murders of foreign nationals Cesare Tavella and Hoshi Kunio, attacks on police officials, and the bomb attack on Hossaini Dalan.
Blaming activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir of playing a leading role in militancy, Kamal said the Jamaat-Shibir men who used to cut veins of people in the past were now carrying out the contract killings.
“All of them are carrying out contract killings with an aim to destroy the peace and development of Bangladesh,” the minister said.
On another note, he said it was not madrasa students or Islamic scholars who were murdering foreigners or involved with militant activities, but it was the students of private universities who were found to be involved in most cases.
Jamaat-Shibir were misleading private university students to become involved with the IS and the JMB, and consequently using them in the killings, the home minister said.
Also speaking at the programme, Farid Uddin Masud, imam of the Sholakia Eidgah, said militancy cannot be defeated as long as Jamaat continues to exist. There was no need for the IS when Jamaat was still here, he added.
Masud, also the secretary general of Jamaat-e-Ulema Maulana, also branded Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) as offshoots of Jamaat.
“Jamaat must be boycotted politically and socially. Their financial institutions are boosting militancy. Their properties should be seized,” he said.
Food Minister Qamrul Islam said it was misguided individuals who were killing innocent people and were involved in terrorism in the name of religion.
He also urged the mosque imams and Islamic scholars to discuss the issue of militancy on every jumma prayers on Fridays.
Also addressing the discussion, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah urged all to work together on a single platform to deal with militancy.
The government has never asked the police to monitor madrasas and law enforcers wanted the situation to remain so, the DMP boss said.