Cannot confirm al Qaeda’s claim of killing blogger in Bangladesh: US

US State Department official says they would have to investigate whether the local militant group was working for AQ

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Monday that it has not been able to confirm a claim by al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) that the group killed a blogger who was also a US citizen in Bangladesh in February, a US official said on Monday.

The SITE Intelligence Group had reported on Sunday that AQIS leader Asim Umar had claimed responsibility for the killing of Avijit Roy, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, in a video listing several people killed in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

"We are aware of the May 2 claim of responsibility for the murder of the American-Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy by AQIS," an official of the US State Department said. "However we cannot independently confirm who is responsible for this despicable act of terrorist violence."

On Sunday, Bangladeshi police stood by their assessment that Avijit's murder was the work of a local militant group called the Ansarullah Bangla Team, which had claimed responsibility shortly after the attack.

The official said that the US would now have to investigate whether the group was working as a branch of al Qaeda.

The United States has provided support to Bangladeshi authorities during the initial stages of investigation into Avijit's murder.

Avijit, who wrote a blog that highlighted humanist and rationalist ideas and condemned religious extremism, was hacked to death by machete-wielding assailants in Dhaka on February 26. His family said radical militants were to blame.

SITE, which monitors Internet messages posted by militant groups, said AQIS leader Asim Umar made his claim in a nine-minute video, listing several people killed in Bangladesh and Pakistan over ‘blasphemy’.