(From Reuters)
A banned Islamist group in Bangladesh tied to the al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent has claimed responsibility for the killing of a student opponent of radical Islam.
The killing of 28-year-old Nazimuddin Samad on Wednesday night follows a string of similar attacks last year, when at least five secular bloggers and publishers were killed allegedly by radical Islamists.
According to SITE Intelligence monitoring group, Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh division of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, or AQIS, said in a statement posted online on Friday that its members carried out the attack in “vengeance.” It said that Samad “abused” God, the Prophet Muhammad, and Islam.
It cited three examples from Samad’s Facebook page without giving the text of his posts.
“This operation was conducted to teach a lesson to the blasphemers of this land whose poisonous tongues are constantly abusing Allah, the religion of Islam and the Messenger under the pretext of so-called freedom of speech,” the statement said. Read More