Murder of Italian man stirs foreign media
The murder of Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic area is covered widely in different media across the globe highlighting the ISIS claim of responsibility.
The subsequent alerts issued by the US and Britain about possible attacks on foreign nationals and caution about their citizens' movement in Bangladesh also come up in the reports. Some media also report the delayed visit of Australian national cricket team to Bangladesh on security grounds.
Referring to a statement of ISIS on the SITE Intelligence group's website, CNN reports that “the soldiers of Caliphate in Bangladesh” targeted an Italian national, shot him dead using silenced-mounted guns.
The SITE Intelligence group monitors radical Islamic websites, including ISIS, also called ISIL, that issued the statement after the murder claiming that a “security detachment” had tracked Tavella through the streets of Dhaka and killed him using “silenced weapons.”
Tavella was the project manager of Profitable Opportunities for Food Security (Proofs), a project of Netherlands-based organisation ICCO Cooperation.
If the claim is true, it would mark the group's first attack in the secular South Asian nation which has been struggling in recent months with the rapid rise of hardline Islamist groups, banning several that have been blamed in the killing of four bloggers this year, says the US news media. It adds the terror group also issued an ominous warning on Twitter, saying “all citizens of Crusader Coalition will not be safe in the Muslim land.”
According to ISIS, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and is intent on expanding its influence across the Muslim world, countries like the US, the UK, France and Italy that are trying to destroy the terror organisation belong to the coalition.
The Guardian reports on worrying signs in recent weeks that extremist groups based in Bangladesh are developing a more international perspective through killing of bloggers and publishing a hit-list of international bloggers.
The UK newspaper believes the surge in Islamic militant violence in Bangladesh may in part be driven by bitter competition between al-Qaeda and ISIS. Both aspire to lead Islamic extremism worldwide, but differ widely over strategy, although both seek maximum publicity for their actions.
The Guardian also mentions that the authorities in Bangladesh have been criticised for their failure to protect bloggers and for not taking the problem of rising extremism sufficiently seriously.
According to Reuters, the Government in Bangladesh has been tackling Islamist groups who aim to make the South Asian nation of 160 million people a sharia-based Islamic state. The Australian cricket team have delayed its planned departure to Bangladesh after being warned by its government that there was a potential security risk from militants.
The Aljazeera also could not confirm the ISIS claim, but the statement comes up in its news.
Mentioning ISIS claim and restrictions on the movement of US and UK nationals, BBC Online reports that Bangladesh has been struggling to respond to a recent rise in radical Islamist groups.
It says extremists have carried out a series of high-profile attacks on secular bloggers, hacking to death four bloggers -- one a US citizen -- so far this year. One group, Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), has reportedly threatened to kill secular bloggers and activists outside Bangladesh.
Melbourne-based Herald Sun says chilling warnings from Britain and the US about militant attacks on westerners in Bangladesh have added to the likelihood Cricket Australia will cancel next month's tour.
Fox News reports that ISIS claims responsibility for the killing of the Italian national. It says despite the government's banning of several radical Islamist groups, intelligence sources have confirmed that several hardline groups are still active in Bangladesh.
The local group ABT, which has apparent links with al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, has claimed responsibility for killing four bloggers who criticised Prophet Muhammad and radical Islam, it adds.
Several Indian media, including The Hindu, also reported the murder and mentioned the ISIS claim.