Murder of Italian national

We condemn the killing of Italian citizen Cesare Tavella and express our deepest condolences to the bereaved family. That the killing was pre-planned and carried out by professionals is obvious. 

It is the alleged IS link that has lent credibility to the claim by some quarters that Bangladesh is linked to international terrorist operations. We seriously question the veracity of this claim and echo the doubts expressed by our Prime Minister. This view of the global media, we are constrained to suggest, is mostly based on a single source, which is a website called Site Intelligence, specialising, putatively, in monitoring Jihadi activities, and not verified through any other sources. Therefore the claim of an IS link remains very tenuous. We, therefore, urge the global media to re-examine and re-verify the veracity of the source.

   The killing has occurred at a time when the Australian cricket board, Cricket Australia, has delayed the Australian tour of Bangladesh on grounds of security. We are not sure what has prompted the US, Canada and some European countries to issue travel alerts to their citizens regarding Bangladesh. The government should seek specific information from these countries regarding the 'threat' in Bangladesh, if not done already. And our agencies should seek active collaboration of their counterparts in these countries to get the facts in order that appropriate countermeasures can be initiated and fears allayed immediately. It is absolutely imperative that we put to rest any concerns about Bangladesh becoming a haven for global militancy.