Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for killing bloggers and a university teacher in Bangladesh.
Al-Qaeda operatives murdered Avijit Roy, Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Rajeeb Haider and Rajshahi University teacher AKM Shafiul Islam, claimed Asim Umar, Indian Subcontinent leader of the terrorist outfit.
The video, posted on Youtube on Saturday, was first spotted by SITE Intelligence Group. The video included images of murdered bloggers and secular activists.
“Al-Qaeda operatives in the Indian sub-continent have recently assassinated several blasphemers,” Aasim claimed in the video.
The video message said: “And the killing mission started in Pakistan with the murder of the secular Dr Shakeel Auj and blogger Aneeqa Naz.”
“And extended to Bangladesh where Rajib Haider had earlier been assassinated.”
“Meanwhile, the accused atheist professor of Rajshahi University and the American citizen Avijit Roy have also been killed using a butcher’s knife,” adds the video text.
American citizen Avijit was brutally murdered by fanatics on February 27, during a trip to Bangladesh with his wife. Both Avijit and Bonna are naturalised US citizens, and were here because two of Avijit’s books were published in this year’s book fair.
Ahmed Rajeeb Haider, a blogger, an architect, and an activist of the Shahbagh Gonojagoron Mancha movement, was hacked to death in the capital’s Pallabi on February 15, 2013.
Secular blogger Md Oyasiqur Rahman Babu was hacked to death on March 30 this year, in Tejgaon, Dhaka allegedly for his atheist views.
On November 15 last year, unidentified assailants hacked Prof Shafiul to death with machetes in broad daylight near his Choddopai residence close to the Rajshahi University campus.
