Gulshan cafe attack
DMP chief rebuts report of IS approval for Gulshan attack
Staff Reporter
Contradicting a Reuters report yesterday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said that they had no information that Gulshan cafe attack mastermind Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury obtained approval from the Islamic State (IS) before carrying out the attack. He said this while addressing a programme at the DMP headquarters in Dhaka. Replying to a question about the Reuters report, the DMP chief said, As I have no such information, I will not comment on the issue. He, however, told journalists that investigators would look into the matter.
About the present capabilities of militant networks in the country, Asaduzzaman said top militant leaders were killed during special drives by law enforcement agencies and many of them were arrested in separate raids in the country since theGulshan attack. At present, militants have lost the capability of organising any large-scale attack in the country. Were trying to arrest all fugitive militants including Marzan,Bashar and Razib, he added.
On November 30, a Reuters report claimed that Tamim had been told by his contact in the militant group, Abu Terek Mohammad Tajuddin Kausar, to carry out major attacks against foreigners. Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury had obtained the approval of the Islamic State before carrying out the Gulshan cafe attack, reported Reuters, quoting a senior police official, who had, apparently, seen the communication between the two men. Twenty hostages, 17 foreigners among them, were killed during the seizure of the cafe, which ended following a raid by Army-backed commandos.
