Pallabi Police Station blast: IS claims responsibility; DMP says claim ‘fake’

Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the explosion at Pallabi Police Station in Dhaka today, which left five policemen injured, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Rita Katz, Director of SITE Intelligence Group, said this in a Twitter post this evening. 

"#ISIS claims attack in Bangladesh, targeting a police headquarters in capital #Dhaka. Marks the group's 1st attack in the city since Aug. 2019 & comes amid an attack surge as part of the 4th wave of its "Battle of Attrition" campaign, in lead up to #EidAlAdha," Rita said in the tweet.

[twitter]

1)BREAKING: #ISIS claims attack in #Bangladesh, targeting a police headquarters in capital #Dhaka. Marks the group's 1st attack in the city since Aug. 2019 & comes amid an attack surge as part of the 4th wave of its "Battle of Attrition" campaign, in lead up to #EidAlAdha. pic.twitter.com/om03BcOS4w

— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) July 29, 2020

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However, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has refuted the claim.

Saiful Islam, deputy commissioner of CTTC unit, told The Daily Star that ISIS made this kind of fake claims earlier and this is nothing but a part of that process by the group.

"We have so far found criminal intentions behind the incident through analysing primary motive. However, we are still investigating the incident to check further," said Saiful in response to IS' claims.

Another official of the CTTC unit, wishing anonymity, said the ISIS is just trying to grab the opportunity as media gave huge coverage to the incident.

On Friday, there was a blast in Paltan area of the capital but no one took the responsibility for it as it got poor media coverage, the official explained.