Bangladesh looks into "al-Qaida threat"

Bangladesh said on Sunday it will look into the recent "al-Qaida threat" to wage an intifada in the country that sparked a war of words among political parties.

Officials say the government's relevant authorities are now investigating the authenticity of the audio message by al-Qaida Chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.

They say Bangladeshi will resist any kind of threat against the country.

"We're not worried by such threats or calls and we'll resist it, " Bangladeshi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told journalists.

Bangladeshi State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the country has ample strength to counter any militancy threat.

"We're investigating the authenticity of the audio message by al-Qaida chief. We're in a position to combat all forms of threat, " he told journalists.

The audiovisual message purported to be from al-Qaida chief has made a plea to Muslims in Bangladesh to wage an intifada (uprising) to confront the "crusader onslaught against Islam."

Posted in Jihadology.net in the middle of January this year, the message alleged thousands of people were being killed in the streets of Bangladesh for protesting the "collusion of the anti- Islam secular government with a bunch of transgressing secularists. "

The ruling and the opposition parties in Bangladesh, however, engaged in a blame game over the threat, which sparked a huge uproar in Bangladesh after almost all the leading local media published the news with due importance on Sunday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League ( AL) party pointed its finger at the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its key ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e- Islami party, saying they are friends of the global terror network.

"BNP and Jamaat are allies of al-Qaida," Senior AL leader Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim said in the Parliament on Sunday.

Quoting the U.S. magazine "Time," Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury also told the Parliament on Sunday that the al-Qaida chief visited Bangladesh thrice between 2001 and 2006 "under the supervision of BNP and Jamaat when they were in power."

AL leaders say the al-Qaida threat came at a time when ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia failed to resist the Jan. 5 elections which were marred by opposition boycott and widespread violence.

Jamaat has denied the allegation.

Shafiqur Rahman, acting secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat, in a statement Sunday said his party has no connection with al- Qaida or any militant groups.

A spokesman for ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's BNP was not immediately available for comment.