Home minister denies talking to The Hindu

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday evening said he had not talked to Indian English daily The Hindu, let alone tell it that “two IS assassins sought by Bangladesh for the October 3 murder of Japanese agro-researcher Kunio Hoshi, have crossed over to India”.

“The Hindu never sought a statement from me,” he said after The Daily Star asked for more information about the “IS assassins”.

In the report, dated November 25 and titled “We are tracking two IS killers inside India, says Bangladesh”, The Hindu claimed to have talked with the minister in Bangladesh from India on Tuesday.

The report also quoted him as saying, “We have alerted Indian authorities about their (IS) presence.”

“How could I make such a comment when there is no existence of IS in the country,” said the minister.

According to him, a Bangladesh-born UK citizen had been involved in spreading propaganda that IS existed in this country. “But we caught him many months ago and sent him back to the UK,” said Asaduzzaman Khan.

“Extremists in the country are a certain group of people taking on different organisational identities like JMB or Ansarullah Bangla or IS at times to grab public attention,” he added.

Indian newspaper Times of India contacted the minister recently.

“That interview was over the outcome of the home ministry-secretary level meeting between India and Bangladesh held in Dhaka this month,” said the minister, adding, “Still, I never talked about existence of IS in Bangladesh.”

The Hindu in its report also got Asaduzzaman Khan's position in the cabinet wrong as it identified him as the “state minister for home affairs”.

Meanwhile, police have so far rounded up three youths and an alleged Bangladeshi friend of the Japanese national in connection with the murder.