The Dhaka Times Desk Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's audio message calling Bangladeshis to jihad has become a hot topic. The government's intelligence agency is investigating the authenticity of this audio.
A video record with the name and picture of Al Qaeda's current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appeared on the Internet in a large scale in domestic and foreign media. This issue was also discussed in the national parliament yesterday.
There has been a call from the conscious circles of the country to look into the issue of threat without looking at it politically. Experts believe that it is necessary to check first whether the audio is really Al Qaeda.
In that video message titled 'Bangladesh: Massacre Behind a Wall of Silence', Ayman Al-Zawahiri called for a resistance movement (intifada) against 'anti-Islam' in Bangladesh. He made this appeal to Muslims through a video message of 14 minutes and 50 seconds.
In the alleged message, the head of the militant organization Al-Qaeda has criticized the liberation war of Bangladesh in various ways. He even raised questions about the purpose of creating Bangladesh in that video message. According to him, 'the purpose of breaking up Pakistan was to divide the Muslim Ummah and weaken them in the subcontinent.' Al-Zawahiri called the current government of Bangladesh 'anti-Islamic' and 'secular'.
Al-Zawahiri did not directly mention Hefazat Islam or Jamaat-e-Islami in his speech. However, at the beginning of the message, still images of the security forces raiding the Hefazat assembly were shown. And in a part of the speech, he also expressed his anger about the trial of the International Tribunal in that video message.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs has confirmed that the government has taken the issue seriously and started an investigation. Due to the sensitive nature of the matter, utmost confidentiality is maintained. Experts will also examine whether the audio recording is indeed Zawahiri's. All matters are being investigated. It is expected that the matter may be cleared within a day or two.
Meanwhile, Professor Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin in the United States. Zillur Rahman Khan said, 'Ayman al-Zawahiri's speech is given on the website is not a website of al-Qaeda. It's not even a close al Qaeda site. He said this while participating in the talk show of private television Ekattore.
The United States on al-Qaeda's message
A spokesman for the country's foreign ministry said that the United States is aware of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's message about Bangladesh. "We are aware of this message," said the spokesperson on Sunday. "We also have a clear stance against political violence," the spokesman said, adding that the US has a clear stance against al-Qaeda.
The spokesperson of the US State Department said, "What Zawahiri said about Bangladesh, we rejected it. Bangladesh is a liberal, tolerant Muslim country, where extremists like Al-Qaeda have no place.”
It should be noted that after the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri has been appointed as the head of Al-Qaeda.
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