From Orlando, Florida to Bangladesh, international militant group Islamic State claims that some 5,200 people were killed or injured in “military operations” perpetrated during the month of Ramadan by their members.
In Dhaka, at least 22 people including 17 foreigners were shot and slaughtered while 40 other policemen injured in the country's deadliest militant attack on a Gulshan eatery on July 1. Five of the militants were killed in a commando operation the next morning.
Before this attack, members of the so-called Islamic State (IS) claimed that they had killed three Hindu priests and a Buddhist monk in Jhenaidah, Pabna and Bandarban in Ramadan.
Also read: IS claims Gulshan restaurant attack
In an infographic, IS lists 14 terror attacks across the world, including in Syria, Iraq, the US, Europe, Asia and Africa, boasted the group’s weekly magazine al-Naba on Tuesday. A deadly suicide blast on July 3 accounts for at least 292 people in Iraq.
The group unpopular for brutal killings and wrongly explaining Islam to justify their killings does not mention the assault on Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport that killed 41 on June 28, although Turkish officials claimed IS leadership was involved in its planning.
Rounding up its casualty list, the group, also known as Dae'sh, boasts that it killed and injured 1,988 Shias, 965 Kurds, 580 Syrian Alawites and 285 non-Arab Christians, among many others.
All the numbers could not be independently verified. The group declared Caliphate on June 29, 2014 with their leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, as the new caliph.
The first Bangladeshi group of five people gave Bayah (allegiance) to Baghdadi in early August 2014, taking oaths to organise Muslims under his leadership. So far, several dozen Bangladeshis have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the war for IS; some of them have been killed in air strikes.
Read more: ‘Attackers given training in Gaibandha’
IS claimed their first attack in Bangladesh after three youths on a motorcycle killed an Italian aid worker in Gulshan, Dhaka on September 28 last year. The latest attack on Gulshan's Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen building was its 25th attack. The group is responsible for the deaths of at least 44 people in the last one year.
The government denies the presence of IS in the country, claiming that the local banned militant groups have been carrying out the secret killings. The IS victims include non-Sunni and non-Muslim preachers, foreigners and law enforcers. They also bombed and opened fire on devotees inside two mosques.
Police have found the involvement of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) members in most of the attacks claimed by IS.
In its 14th edition of Dabiq magazine published on April 13 this year, IS claimed that they have organisational base in Bangladesh – they term it Bengal – from where they have plans to attack India and Myanmar to “avenge the persecution on Muslims.”
“We believe the Shariah in Bengal won’t be achieved until the local Hindus are targeted in mass numbers,” said Sheikh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, the man leading the operations in Bangladesh, in an interview.
Meanwhile, Ansar Al Islam (believed to be outlawed group Ansarullah Bangla Team), which is representing al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in Bangladesh, has claimed credit for 13 attacks since 2013 killing a dozen of war crimes trial campaigners, secular bloggers, writers, publishers and LGBT rights activists.
Sunday, July 19, 2026
