They said they have arrested four suspects over the killing of an Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in the capital.
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The assailants shot Tavella, 51, in Gulshan, the diplomatic zone of Dhaka, on the evening of September 28.
The USA has said it is not sure about the presence of the Islamic State in Bangladesh, but noted the country is working with Dhaka to “assess” who is responsible for the recent murders of foreigners. They also dismissed the suggestion that IS killed the Japanese man, and also rejected the idea that they were behind the bombing of a Shiite procession that killed a teenager and injured 100 others. “Only one Rita Katz’s SITE Intelligence Group uploaded a post where Islamic State purportedly claimed responsibility for Tavella’s murder”.
“They carried out the murder to embarrass the government, to put the government under pressure and to create anarchy”, Dhaka police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia told reporters in a press conference.
Instead, Bangladesh accused domestic Islamist militants and Islamist politicians of orchestrating the violence to destabilise the already fractious nation.
Asaduzzaman Mia told journalists at a press briefing Monday afternoon that the professional killers committed the murder in exchange for money being hired by someone whom he termed “a so-called big brother”.
The attackers allegedly targeted Tavella simply because he was Caucasian, and they were promised payment for the attack.
They did not elaborate on the identity of the “big brother” said to have ordered the killing of Tavella who worked for a faith-based Dutch charity. “The killers asked whether he had any enmity with that foreigner; he replied, “No, you have to kill a white man”. “We have interrogated them separately. But there’s an investigation going on right now that we want to – if there’s a need to be helpful, we want to be helpful”, he said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reminded people of her “zero tolerance” for terrorism.
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Experts say the crackdown has left a few of the country’s more hard-line Muslims feeling alienated, and has led to a resurgence in activity by Islamic extremist groups.
