Govt verifying authenticity of reported al-Qaeda message

State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday said the government is verifying the authenticity of the reported audiovisual message of al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri against Bangladesh. He came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after a meeting with law enforcement agencies at the Secretariat. Replying to a query whether the government has considered the message as a threat, the junior minister replied in the negative. “We don’t think it (message) is a threat. Whenever such kind of incident happens, there’s someone behind it.” He, however, said Bangladesh has the ability to deal with such threats as members of the law enforcement agencies are trained on anti-terrorism activities. “We’re ready to deal with any kind of threat.” Observing that the country’s people are against terrorism, Asaduzzaman said: “They (people) are with us and they’ll prevent any kind of terrorist acts.” Meanwhile, the state minister said mobile phone operators cannot sell SIM cards without proper documents of the buyers, according to a news agency.