Youth arrested for circulating al-Qaida's threat message against Bangladesh

Bangladesh's anti-crime elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Tuesday morning arrested a youth for circulating an audio-clip of al-Qaida Chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri calling for an "intifada" (uprising) in the country. "The youth was arrested for receiving and circulating the al- Qaida audio clip in Bangladesh," RAB spokesman ATM Habibur Rahman told journalists at a press beefing in Dhaka Tuesday evening. He said the youth -- Rasel Bin Sattar Khan -- received the audio clip through email from Dawah Illalah, a Pakistan-based organization, which first uploaded it on Nov. 30, 2013. He said investigation is still going on to unearth the authenticity of the audio message by al-Qaida chief Ayman Al- Zawahiri. About 21-year old, Khan, who was produced before journalists during the press briefing, denied any connection with Dawah Illallah which, according to the anti-elite crime force, has connection with al-Qaida. "As I follow the organization's facebook group like many other Islamic pages and groups I receive email from it automatically," he said. "The allegation is virtually true that I've circulated the audio clip through Facebook and my blogs." But the youth has expressed his ignorance about the audio clip' s main source. "I've no idea when and where it was made and uploaded first." RAB personnel nabbed Khan, a third-year student of a textile institute, from Bangladesh's central Tangail district, some 97 km away of capital Dhaka, Tuesday morning, within a day after the audio clip, which sparked a huge uproar in Bangladesh, was published in almost all the leading local media with due importance on Sunday. The audiovisual message purported to be from the al-Qaida chief has made a plea to Muslims in Bangladesh to wage an intifada ( uprising) to confront the "crusader onslaught against Islam." The message alleged that thousands of people were being killed in the streets of Bangladesh for protesting the "collusion of the anti-Islam secular government with a bunch of transgressing secularists."