An explosives expert from a banned Islamist group was killed in Bangladesh today when he detonated a device while security forces searched for weapons in one of the group’s hideouts, police said.

Police said Mohammad Javed, 24, was an explosives expert with the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed group blamed for a series of deadly blasts in 2005.

The death comes amid heightened tension in the Muslim majority nation after an Italian aid worker and a Japanese farmer were shot dead last week with the Islamic State organisation claiming responsibility.

Police said they arrested Mohammad Javed and four other JMB militants on Monday and seized a cache of weapons from a hideout in the port city Chittagong.

“Early Tuesday morning we took Mahammad Javed to conduct a search for more weapons at the city’s Kuaish area where he exploded a grenade. He was injured and died,” Chittagong’s deputy police chief Kusum Dewan told AFP.

He said Mohammad Javed was the “regional head of JMB’s explosive unit”, which has been trying to regroup after it was severely weakened in an anti-militant crackdown.

The JMB killed at least 28 people in 2005 when they carried out a series of bomb attacks on courts.

Bangladesh prides itself on being a mainly moderate Muslim country but the gruesome killings of four atheist bloggers this year have rocked the nation.

After the murder of foreigners, international schools closed temporarily and Western embassies restricted their diplomats’ movements, while Australia’s cricket team cancelled a planned tour due to security concerns.

With killing of all attackers, the operation of security forces ended near Russian Embassy in Kabul.

A Number of armed attackers entered a house which is said to be the guesthouse of a governmental official and from that place, they carried out indiscriminate shooting.

Eyewitness said to BNA, in first one of the attackers carried out suicide attack with a car packed explosive and others entered to the house.

According to them, minutes after the event, the area was surrounded by security forces, firing of light weapons by security forces continued until midnight.

Abadullah Karimi spokesman of Kabul security directorate told BNA reporter, the incident was ended with killing of all attackers.

According to the source, there were no any harm and casualties to militaries and civilians, but seven police officials were slightly wounded in the incident.

It is said that some residential houses were also damaged in the incident.

bakhtarnews.com.af

Dhaka and Washington have “everything” needed to fight Islamic State (IS) in Bangladesh, US ambassador Marcia Bernicat says.

Her comment follows the murder of two foreign nationals in Bangladesh within a week, for both of which the IS has claimed responsibility.

The government, however, denied the presence of IS in Bangladesh.

Earlier on Sunday, Bernicat told journalists in Chittagong that the US has taken “seriously” IS’s claim of responsibility for the two murders.

“….we are working hard right now with your government to verify whether or not those claims are accurate,” she had said.

Bernicat told diplomatic correspondents in Dhaka on Monday that the two countries needed ‘joint efforts’ to fight violent extremism.

She also extolled Bangladesh’s approach against terrorism.

“We have everything we need to fight the emergence of IS in Bangladesh,” she said.

“Bangladesh has a Prime Minister who has taken a zero tolerance approach to terrorism.

“As partners over the years, we have developed the resources, the commitment, and the shared experiences we need to counter terrorism and violent extremism,” she said.

Bernicat said terrorism was “a global issue that requires a coordinated, global approach”.

“And we are determined to work together with our shared partners for the safety and security of our countries,” she said.

This was her first interaction with the members of the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) since she took the charge in February this year.

She said there were “so many important stories” to share about the US – Bangladesh relationship.

“Our two countries have a common vision not just for our bilateral relationship, but for the region”.

“Let me be clear: the US – Bangladesh relationship is stronger than ever before and our interests are more closely aligned,” she said citing examples of engagements between the countries.

Those range from the countering violent extremism to health sector cooperation.

“We approach Bangladesh as our full-fledged partner, whether we are collaborating on security, development or economic issues,” Bernicat said.

She said US would continue to support Bangladesh to help it achieve the new sustainable development goals.

On the matter of reinstating GSP facility for Bangladesh, the US envoy said that it was an area that requires “more work”.

Pakistan’s Christians should take measures to prepare against a coming wave of attacks by Islamic State (ISIS), the country’s military has warned. They have been contacting churches, individuals, and Christian organisations in the country to inform them that jihadists may attack imminently.

ISIS affiliated groups within Pakistan have already made their intentions clear, publicly announcing that they will start to attack “infidels” within the country. At the same time, the military has begun purging ISIS sympathisers from within its ranks, and contacting Christian groups to warn them of potential attacks.

According to the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), they have been warning Christian leaders not to meet people unknown to them, and have even advised one pastor not to take his usual morning and evening walks.

Depending on the political circumstances, the Pakistani military has in the past similarly intervened against extremists to protect minorities, including Christians.

Despite the insistence of the Pakistani government that ISIS has “no credible presence” in the country, some factions of the Pakistani Taliban have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The BPCA reports that some Taliban units have remained with the Taliban but have declared themselves to be local representatives of ISIS. Others have announced that their men will join ISIS “when the time is right”.

The former Pakistani Taliban Commander Hafiz Saed Khan is said to be among those who have switched allegiance, along with a number of his fellow commanders. However, the Taliban’s official propaganda unit has declared the Islamic State caliphate to be illegitimate, leading to warring between the factions.

ISIS has not yet formally accepted the allegiance of the defectors, nor claimed responsibility for any attacks carried out in Pakistan, Reuters reports.

BPCA chairman Wilson Chowhdry said “Whilst in one sense it is heartening that the Pakistani Army is at least giving warnings to church leaders, it should not blind us to the fact that this is in effect a tacit recognition of the utterly vulnerable state of Christians and Christian institutions in Pakistan.

“Many of the conditions for genocide of Christians have long been in place in Pakistan, and earlier this year the government itself was inciting hatred against Christians, along with the media, in the aftermath of the double church suicide bombing.”

In May the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called on the Obama administration to designate Pakistan a “country of particular concern.”

The British government has also come under pressure to reassess the situation for Pakistan’s Christians after it emerged that fewer than 20 per cent of asylum claims made by Pakistani Christians in Britain are successful. That rate has fallen drastically from the 50 per cent who were granted asylum just two years ago, and is stark contrast to the 87 per cent of Syrians granted leave to stay.

Mr Chowhdry said: “In the light of the worsening reality reflected in these warnings, our campaign for the Home Office to radically revise its absurd position that Christians in Pakistan are merely discriminated against, but not generally persecuted gains added urgency. We call on the Home Office to revise its position immediately.”

Afghan National Security Forces have rebuffed a coordinated attack of Taliban militants on Maimana, the provincial capital of northern Faryab province.

Taliban insurgents armed with heavy and light weapons launched the assault on Maimana from three directions yesterday and engaged in intense gun battle with security forces.

The clash continued until this morning and finally Taliban stepped back who are now about 20 kilometers away from Maimana.

Sayed Abdul Baqi, head of Faryab’s Provincial Council said that Taliban suffered heavy casualties in the clash, adding that civilians were also harmed.

According to Abdul Baqi, seven members of a single family were killed and wounded in the clash.

Taliban have begun a new wave of attacks in northern Afghanistan and try to capture large areas from government.

They have been able to occupy districts briefly but lose them back to security forces with heavy casualties.

They recently attacked the key northern city of Kundoz and had several areas under control for about two days.

According the Ministry of Defense, security forces have pushed back insurgents from Kundoz city but clearance operation still continues.

Malaysians, who earlier served as cleaners and guards at the Islamic State camps in Syria, are now being trained to become snipers and suicide bombers in Iraq as the dreaded terror group is trying to regain its hold over the war-torn country, a senior officer has said.

Malaysians, who fell prey to IS’ false promise of “jihad” and began serving as cleaners and guards, are being trained to become snipers and suicide bombers with the specific goal of regaining its grip in Iraq, Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division head Senior Asst Comm Ayub Khan said.

The Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS and ISIL, now counted on some Malaysians to carry out its special ops missions all over Iraq.

“The presence of the IS in Syria is quite solid but the group is losing control over Iraq as many territories have fallen back to Iraqi government.

“Our intelligence show that they are relying more on Malaysians now to carry out strike missions against several key structures in Iraq,” he told The Star newspaper yesterday.

The new development came to light following the deaths of three Malaysians in Iraq, believed to be on special ops missions, Ayub was quoted as saying by the paper.

The latest deaths bring the number of Malaysians killed in Syria and Iraq to 14.

“As with some deaths involving Malaysians in both countries, it was hard to get a DNA sample to completely verify and identify the militants involved,” he said, adding that they relied on their intelligence gathering network.

At present, he said police have identified 69 Malaysians who are fighting along the IS in Syria.

“Previously, there were militants who joined other terror groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria. However, this trend has stopped as all of them have joined the IS,” he added.

An Italian aid worker, Cesare Tavella, was gunned down in a targeted attack while he was jogging in the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. The murder of the 50-year-old took on an even more menacing dimension when the global terrorist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence group which monitors jihadist threats.

According to the statement intercepted by SITE, “a security detachment” with silenced weapons was tasked to gun down the aid worker, and this assassination was meant to be a warning to all “citizens of the crusader coalition” visiting Muslim majority nations, including tourist hotspots like Turkey, Malaysia and Morocco.

Though the claims of the IS have not yet been independently verified, the mere possibility of IS carrying out operations within the South Asian country has sent shockwaves internationally. In response to the attack, the UK and US warned their diplomats and nationals to be wary of the threat and limit their movements because western interests were bound to be targets.

The Italian embassy is following similar precautions and advised its nationals to stay clear of public areas. Education and sport too are bearing the consequences of the attack, as international schools have been closed and an impending tour of the Australian cricket team to Bangladesh has been all but cancelled.

The response of the Bangladesh government officials to the attack has been a regrettably familiar one.

Much like the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Bengali approach is one of denial about the modus operandi and creeping danger of IS.

When Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan says: “We have only heard about IS in Bangladesh but haven’t found any of them”, he might well be echoing Pakistan’s own Chaudhry Nisar. While a country’s top officials’ need to dispel worries and doubts about the safety of their people is understandable, it is reckless to dismiss alarming truths in favour of a comforting narrative.

As argued in this space many times before, the threat of IS is precisely in its capacity to spread into other territories on the back of ideological diffusion. Bangladesh has already been caught in the grip of unprecedented Islamist violence, with many secular bloggers and journalists meeting gruesome deaths at the hands of Islamist groups like the Ansarullah Bangla Team, and this provides an ideal breeding ground for IS to spread its deadly agenda.

IS does not have to physically invade a country with its insurgents to conduct operations there, it merely taps into existing terrorist and Islamist networks and appropriates them. Both Bangladesh and Pakistan have plenty of such actors and it will be to their own peril if the governments of these countries continue to ignore the threat.

dailytimes.com.pk

150 Taliban militants have been killed and 90 others wounded in the operation launched against Taliban in Kundoz.

A statement released by the Ministry of Defense on Thursday morning states that Afghan security forces backed by air support launched operation to push back Taliban from Kundoz province.

The statement adds that besides strict resistance from militants, the operation has been successfully going on.

Security forces entered Bala-e-Hisar around 07:00 am this morning and also captured Pul-e-Rahmat Khan. There were no civilian casualties, the statement states.

The operation continued by the time this report was filed but according to the Ministry of Defense press release there was no resistance by Taliban.

After launching a coordinated attack, Taliban took the control of the city on Monday evening.

Taliban stormed several government compounds including the jail from where they set free around 600 prisoners.

At least 100 of them were detained on terrorism charges.

khaama.com