The SITE Intelligence Group, an organisation that monitors terrorist activities, said that ISIS has released a video about the Holey Artisan attacks. The 14:58-minute-long video includes diatribes in both Bengali and Arabic. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, and some other religious leaders were criticised in the video, while US president Barack Obama, Russian president Vladimir Putin, and other world leaders were described as ‘kafirs’.
About the reason behind Gulshan attack, the video said the five attackers entered the operation to punish the ‘crusaders’, who it claims were soaked in the blood of Muslim men and women.
The video was released after the bodies of the dead militants were buried last Thursday.
In the second part of the video, the five Gulshan attackers were seen wearing the black dresses and scarves associated with ISIS members. They were standing in front of the ISIS flag and talking about their reasons for taking part in the attack.
The names mentioned in the video are not the same as the names of the identified militants.
The video was first released by the Arabic Nashir channel on Telegram. Nashir is the official ISIS media channel.
Earlier in the day, At-Tamkin, the Bangla media channel controlled by ISIS, made an announcement on its website that they would release a video produced by the ‘Bilad al-Bengal’ media office. Bilad, in this context, means province or region.
The video has been released less than a month, after law enforcers killed Gulshan attack mastermind Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury or Sheikh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif. According to the video, the operations in Bangladesh, on August 27, were led by him.
In the video, believed to be recorded sometime before the Gulshan attack, the five terrorists made statements to justify their stance, criticising the democratic system and the political leaders. They also came down heavily on the Islamic scholars for discouraging Muslims from joining the armed jihad of the ISIS.
The five Gulshan cafe attackers—Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Khairul Islam Payel, Shafiqul Islam Uzzal, and Meer Saameh Mubasser—were killed in a commando operation, on July 2.
Only six days after the attack, IS released a video featuring three Bangladeshi fighters, promising more operations in the country.