He was reacting to media reports that ISI had links with the militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh, the group that carried out the weekend attack in an upscale café in the Bangladeshi capital in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed by the terrorists.
Advertisement
The Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad issued a statement which quoted Rizvi as saying, “The statement issued by the Indian media was “utter nonsense” and that I have never issued any statement or spoken to any TV channel regarding the issue”.
The Foreign Office (FO) strongly rejected Indian media reports alleging Pakistan’s involvement in the recent Dhaka attack in which 20 foreigners were killed. “It is our religious duty to fight against it. Crusaders are killing innocents Muslims globally with planes and bomb attacks.So the Holey Artisan incident is our revenge to the lost blood of the hundreds and hundreds of Muslims who were killed”, the second man said.
“Even the authorities in Bangladesh are unable to confirm it”, he said.
In a separate statement issued on Monday, the Foreign Office termed Indian media allegations as “highly regrettable, irresponsible and provocative” stories. “Pakistan has strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Dhaka and expressed solidarity with the government and the brotherly people of Bangladesh and offered condolences and sympathised with the families of the victims”, Zakaria said.
“Being a victim of terrorism itself, Pakistan welcomes Prof”.
They had attended prestigious schools or universities in Dhaka and Malaysia, officials said.
The parents and relatives of five of the restaurant attackers were questioned by police on Tuesday and some again on Wednesday, according to a police officer who declined to give details and spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
Police have eight people in custody, including one described as an attacker, but no one has been arrested as a suspect.
H.T. Imam, a political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also said security officials had seen online warnings about an impending attack on Friday and ordered major hotels and restaurants in the neighbourhood of the café shut. “Their families are relatively well-to-do people”, Bangladeshi Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told India’s NDTV.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, Imtiaz Khan Babul, a politician in the ruling Awami League party whose son Rohan Imtiaz was one of the Bangladeshi attackers, said many other young Bangladeshi men have been missing like his son was for several months before carrying out the attack.
