No existence of al-Qaeda in Bangladesh: Shahriar

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam Sunday ruled out the possibility of the existence of international terrorist outfit al-Qaeda in the country.
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.
Talking to reporters at the Foreign Ministry, Shahriar Alam said the government does have the mechanism to detect the sources of such activities and will be able to find out whether it is authentic or not, according to a news agency.