IS claim of RU teacher killing baseless: DMP official

The claim of militant group Islamic State (IS) that it carried out the attack on Prof AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee is baseless, a top official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said today.

Pointing out that there were similar claims after each of the recent attacks, Additional DMP Commissioner Monirul Islam said: “The people who are arrested in connection with the incidents did not claim that they are followers of IS militants group.”

“Each of the attacks is different,” he said while talking to reporters at DMP Media Centre this afternoon.

There is no existence of Islamic State here in the country, the DMP official reiterated while replying to the reporters.

Prof Siddiquee was brutally murdered in Shalbagan area of Rajshahi city yesterday in an attack that police say bears the hallmark of the previous blogger killings.

Hours after the killing, IS claimed responsibility for Prof Rezaul’s killing, according to US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

 “#ISIS' 'Amaq Agency reported the group's responsibility for killing Rajshahi Univ. prof Rezaul Karim for "calling to atheism" in #Bangladesh,” SITE tweeted at 4:49pm.

Prof Rezaul is however known to have never written or spoken anything propagating atheism.