Al-Qaeda has published a photo of a Bangladeshi-origin leader who was killed while fighting for the militant group in Afghanistan.
The youth was identified as Abu Ibrahim in a post published recently on al-Qaeda’s Bangla platform Dawahilallah by a senior member.
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Dawahilallah claim about Abu Ibrahim alias Saiful Islam Hasan[/caption]
According to the post, accessed early Tuesday, he was killed in a US operation in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2015.
When asked by another user why the senior member, Abul Fida (organisational name), posted an old news in the forum, Fida said that he had learnt about the matter in a video released recently.
It is assumed that Abu Ibrahim is the organisational name of Saiful Islam Hasan.
His name first came up late last month when al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) released a statement announcing the death of Tariq alias Sohel, identified as the head of Bangladesh affairs.
Also Read- AQIS statement confirms top Bangladeshi jihadist’s death
It also said that Sohel’s aides who had "embraced martyrdom" with him were Abu Ibrahim alias Saiful Islam Hasan, Qari Abdul Aziz alias Abdul Halim, Yaqub alias Saddam Hossain, Asadullah alias Nazimuddin Maimoon and Abu Bakr alias Anuj Hasib.
Dhaka Tribune could not independently verify the identities.
The law enforcers too have not been able to give details of the persons named in the statement.
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The file photo shows Tariq alias Sohel, the alleged head of Bangladesh affairs of AQIS who was killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan[/caption]
Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil told the Dhaka Tribune that he believed Sohel was the handler of Bangladeshi affairs in Afghanistan, not the Bangladesh chief of AQIS.
Ashiqur Rahman Sulaiman was the first Bangladeshi to have been killed in Afghanistan fighting for al-Qaeda in recent years, he said. An al-Qaeda video from March 2015 described him as a martyr.
"Sohel and his companions were all members of the Bangladeshi markaz in Afghanistan," Tasneem said.
AQIS was formed in late 2014 with the declared intention of waging jihad in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is headquartered in Pakistan.
Since January 2013, the group has taken credit for 13 attacks in which 11 were killed and four others sustained critical injuries. The last operation killed two LGBT rights activists in Dhaka on April 25, 2016.
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Ansar al-Islam attacks since 2013[/caption]
Ansarullah Bangla Team, which started targeted killings of war crimes trial campaigners and secularists in 2013, was declared banned in 2015 after AQIS claimed responsibilities for several murders in Bangladesh.
It is now known as Ansar al-Islam, which was banned on March 5 this year.
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