Govt knows \\\'source of al-Qaeda threat\\\'

The government knows where al-Qaeda's message was transmitted from, said Maj Gen (retd) Tariq Ahmed Siddiqui, Prime Minister's Adviser for Defence Affairs, reports bdnews24.com.
"The transmission's source cannot be revealed for the sake of investigation," Siddiqui told reporters after attending an annual naval parade as the chief guest at Kutubdia Monday.
An audio message with a still photo of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has been circulated on the Internet where he calls on Bangladeshi Muslims to wage jihad against the enemies of Islam.
The militant leader is heard accusing the government in Arabic of having killed "thousands of people" during last year's crackdown on a violent Hefazat-e-Islam rally in Dhaka.
The government was in the process of authenticating the audio message which would require a couple of days, said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam Sunday.
Refusing to disclose the process, the minister said the message, once authenticated, would prove BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami's "ties to international militancy."
BNP, however, claimed that the government was trying to forcibly link it to the international terror group to win the US and the West to its side.
Jamaat-e-Islami denied any role in the al-Qaeda's threat and also expressed alarm over being 'associated to the audio message'.
The al-Qaeda chief's tirade, however, appeared to have been provoked by the war crimes trials where top leaders of Jamaat have been tried and Abdul Quader Molla already executed.
Hefazat-e-Islam, whose rally photos were appended to the audio message, also denied involvement.