Al-Qaeda Terror Group Claims Responsibility for Recent Killings of Secularist Publishers in Bangladesh

The al-Qaeda terror group has taken responsibility for two recent knife killings that targeted secularist publishers in Bangladesh.

The extremist terror group claimed responsibility for the recent knife attacks inflicted on two publishers known for releasing works critical to fundamentalist Islam. One of the publishers, Faisal Arefin Dipan, was killed by the attack, while victim Ahmed Rahim Tutul continues to be in critical condition, according to the New York Times.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the SITE Intelligence Group reported this week that al-Qaeda In the Indian Subcontinent [AQIS] took responsibility for the recent knife attacks carried out late last week. 

"Mujahideen of Ansal al-Islam (AQIS, Bangladesh branch) carried out attacks on two enemies of Allah", the statement said.

"We, al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS), claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the honour of the messenger of Allah and the religion of Islam," the statement continued.

"These two publishers were worse than the writers of such books, as they helped to propagate those books and paid the blasphemers handsome amount of money for writing them," the statement added.

This past week's recent attack comes eight months after Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy was attacked by unkown assailants wielding machetes near Dhaka University in Bangladesh.

The two publishers killed last week both published works by Roy. According to Asia Times, Tutul reportedly reported that he had been receiving threats on his life to local police following Roy's killing last February.