Pakistan rejects allegations of involvement in Dhaka attack

SHOCKED: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offers her tribute to the victims of the attack, in Dhaka on Monday. (AP)

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Monday strongly rejected Indian media reports alleging Pakistan’s involvement in the recent Dhaka attack in which 20 foreigners were killed.

In a statement, FO Spokesman Nafees Zakaria termed the allegations baseless and the reporting of such stories in Indian media “highly regrettable.”
A section of India media had reported that Bangladesh Information Minister Hasanul Haq and Adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Gowher Rizvi blamed Pakistan and its intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the attacks.
“These stories are utterly baseless and unfounded. Pakistan strongly rejects such allegations,” the FO spokesman added.
Bangladesh police sought more information on Monday from friends and family of the men suspected of carrying out a deadly attack, which was claimed by Daesh.
It was one of the deadliest militant attacks to date in Bangladesh, where Daesh and Al-Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and religious minorities in the last year while the government says they were carried out by local groups.
Whoever was responsible, Friday’s attack marked a major escalation in the scale and brutality of militant violence. Daesh posted pictures of five fighters it said were involved in Friday’s atrocity to avenge attacks on Muslims across the world.
Posts on Facebook identified the men, pictured on a Daesh website grinning in front of a black flag, as Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Andaleeb Ahmed and Raiyan Minhaj.
Most went to prestigious schools or universities in Dhaka and Malaysia, officials said.
“A majority of the boys who attacked the restaurant came from very good educational institutions. Some went to sophisticated schools. Their families are relatively well-to-do people,” Bangladeshi Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told India’s NDTV.
Several posts on social media said the man identified by police as Nibras Islam attended Monash University in Malaysia. A friend who knew him while he studied at Dhaka’s North South University told Reuters that Islam later went to Monash.
Two others went to an elite public school in Dhaka called Scholastica. Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka police, said officers were investigating those links.