SITE stands by its reports on IS claims

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group has said it stands by its reports on the Islamic State's claims of responsibility for the killing of two foreigners and the bomb attacks on a Shia programme in Bangladesh.

However, investigators said they are yet to ascertain the authenticity of the IS claims.

The government maintains that there's no organisational presence of the Middle East-based terror outfit in the country.

In a media release uploaded on its website on Tuesday, SITE claimed, "The Bangladesh government has been aggressively denying ISIS involvement in the attacks."

Following the murders of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella on September 28 and Japanese national Kunio Hoshi on October 3, and the Hossaini Dalan blasts early Saturday, the for-profit organisation published reports saying the IS had claimed responsibilities for the attacks.

"SITE stands by its reports on ISIS' claims of the three attacks in Bangladesh. The claims have been authenticated and found credible by SITE's rigorous verification process," says the press release, referring to "numerous IS media channels, including Telegram Messenger and the group's publicly available al-Bayan reports."

It also mentioned "a pro-IS Bengali blog" to back the reports.

On the blog -- attamkin.blogspot.com.tr, it was found that a statement was uploaded following the Hossaini Dalan blasts, saying "soldiers of Khilafah have carried out IED (an improvised explosive device) attack on the Shias".

Contacted, investigators said they were aware of two to three such Bangla blogs but didn't find any link between those and the IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"Activists on the blogs may be religious fanatics. We are monitoring them," said an official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, wishing not to be named.

The SITE press release also urged Bangladesh "to face the truth and focus its aggression on its real enemy, ISIS, rather than on those who warn about it".

However, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal reiterated yesterday that there were no presence of the IS in Bangladesh.

"Our intelligence agencies are sure that those [the claims] were not uploaded on the IS' official website, but from somewhere else," he told a private television channel.

Those who claim to be IS members in Bangladesh may be from militant outfits Huji, al-Qaeda and the JMB, he said at his Dhanmondi residence.

On Tuesday, a US State Department spokesperson said the US was not certain about the presence of Islamic State in Bangladesh.

"It's difficult to say the degree to which ISIL is or is not operating in Bangladesh. I'm not at a position where I can make that determination," John Kirby told reporters at a regular press briefing in Washington.