No existence of al-Qaeda in BD: Shahriar

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam ruled out on Sunday the possibility of the existence of international terrorist outfit al-Qaeda in the country, reports UNB.

He, however, observed that the much-talked-about al-Qaeda's audio message against Bangladesh posted on the internet is almost similar to the anti-liberation discourse of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and expressed suspicion that the party might have some connection with it.

The audio message, said to be of al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahari, called upon Bangladeshi Muslims to join jihad against the western countries. The unconfirmed audio message was published by the Jihadology.net.

He also noted that whatever the network al-Qaeda had in the country in the past has already been destroyed over the last five years' tenure of the immediate past government.

bdnews24.com adds: The government is investigating the origin of the alleged audio-message by the Al-Qaeda chief, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Kamal Khan said on Sunday.

He told journalists at the secretariat that Bangladesh was capable of handling threats posed by such terror groups.

Khan said Bangladesh's law-enforcing agencies were coordinating with international organisations to prevent terrorism.

"We have training in counter terrorism. We can combat all forms of threat," he added.

When asked about how the government is viewing the message the minister said, "We are not seeing it as a threat."

One of the reasons why the government feels confidence is because countrymen will not allow terror to take root.