Al-Qaeda was formed in 1988 by Saudi-origin Osama bin Laden, along with key figures like Muhammad Atef and Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
It originated from a network of Arab fighters who participated in the U.S.-backed Afghan insurgency against the Soviet Union, later pivoting to target Western influence.
Purpose: Founded to support Islamist causes globally, the organization evolved into a transnational jihadist network committed to a “holy war” against Western powers and allied Muslim governments.
Context: It arose in the late 1980s from the Makhtab al-Khidamat (Office of Services) logistical network established earlier by Laden to support the Afghan jihad against the Soviets.
Development: Following the 1991 Gulf War, the group expanded its focus to oppose the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.
Ideology: The organization is dedicated to creating a strict Islamic state, often employing terrorist tactics and establishing training camps to fight “Western Crusaders”.
Bangladeshi Qawmi madrasa teachers and students joined Al-Qaeda when they traveled to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets during the tenure of military dictator General HM Ershad. Some of them joined Pakistan-based Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) and upon return, they formed its Bangladesh chapter.
AQIS and Ansar al-Islam
On September 3, 2014, Ayman al-Zawahiri, then-leader of al-Qaeda, announced the creation of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) via a video message, aiming to spread jihad into South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. The branch was designed to revive the Caliphate, with its base in Pakistan. The announcement followed two years of preparation by Zawahiri to unify various jihadi factions in the region, including Ansarullah Bangla Team, which was formed in 2012 and started killing the following year.
Leader: Zawahiri appointed Asim Umar, a Pakistani militant formerly associated with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as the first Emir of AQIS. Asim Umar reiterated his allegiance to the Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Objectives: The group pledged to “liberate” Muslim lands, protect Muslims in regions like Kashmir, Gujarat, and Assam, and restore Islamic rule in the Indian subcontinent.
Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh chapter of the AQIS, launched its first operation on February 26, 2015, when they killed secularist writer Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-American scientist, and left his wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonnya, seriously injured. Several followers and close aides of Avijit were killed in the following year amid the execution of Jamaat’s top leadership in war crimes cases. Pakistan and Turkey opposed the trials while providing support to Ansar al-Islam and Jamaat-Shibir.
Until April 25, 2016, the AQIS claimed responsibility for 13 attacks, with the murder of USAID employee Xulhaz Mannan and his friend, Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, both LGBT rights activists, in Dhaka. Xulhaz was the founder of Roopbaan magazine.
Following a crackdown by the Awami League government and the rise of Islamic State (ISIS), AQIS quickly shifted its focus to the Rohingya camps and supported the rise of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), previously known as Harakah-al-Yakin, under the leadership of Ata Ullah, a Saudi-born Rohingya, to wage a war against the Myanmar Army, triggering violent retaliation and an exodus of over a million Rohingya into Bangladesh by 2017.
Since then, AQIS has been actively propagating its ideology through social media, but has often shown off its presence in the streets after the 2024 jihadist-army coup that toppled the Awami League government under the direct patronization of the Yunus-led interim government.
Public announcements reveal that apart from Ansar al-Islam, militants linked to like-minded Hizb ut-Tahrir, HuJI-B and Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jamat-ut-Dawa were also involved in the July-August violence.
List of murders claimed by AQIS
1/ On January 13, 2013, secularist writer Asif Mohiuddin was attacked with machetes in Uttara, Dhaka. The blogger was seriously injured and later went abroad.
2/ On February 15, blogger and former BUET student Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed in a machete attack in Pallabi.
3/ On June 14, 2014, activist Rakib Mamun was injured in a gun attack in Shyamoli, Dhaka.
4/ On September 30, Daffodil University student Ashraful Alam was hacked to death in a machete attack at his home near the Jahangirnagar University campus in Savar.
5/ On November 15, Rajshahi University teacher and Baul fan Professor AKM Shafiul Islam was hacked to death near his home.
6/ On February 26 of the following year, science writer and former BUET teacher Dr Avijit Roy was hacked to death near the Raju Sculpture of Dhaka University, and his wife Bonya Ahmed was severely injured when a group of militants attacked them with machetes. The couple came to Dhaka from the US to join the Amar Ekushey Book Fair.
7/ A month later, on March 30, secularist writer and war crimes trial campaigner Oyasiqur Rahman Babu was killed by three attackers wielding machetes while going to his office in the Begunbari area of Tejgaon. At that time, some hijras caught two of the murderers. They are said to be students of Hefazat’s Hathazari Madrasa.
8/ On May 12 of the same year, science writer Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death with a machete on the streets of Sylhet.
9/ Then on August 7, secularist writer Niladri Chattopadhyay (Niloy Neel) was killed in a machete attack at his flat in Goran, Dhaka.
10/ On October 31, publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan was killed by a machete attack at his office in Aziz Supermarket, Dhaka. His father, Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque, recently became the new president of Bangla Academy. He had published books by Dr Avijit Roy.
11/ On the same day, Shuddhaswar Prakashni publisher Ahmedur Rashid Tutul and writers Rondeepam Basu and Tarek Rahim were attacked with machetes in Lalmatia. All of them were seriously injured.
12/ Then on April 6, 2016, Jagannath University student and secularist writer Nazimuddin Samad was killed in a machete attack on the streets of Sutrapur in Old Dhaka.
13/ On April 25 of the same year, LGBT rights activist and USAID official Xulhaz Mannan and theatre activist Mahbub Tanoy were killed in a machete attack at their home in Kalabagan.
Similar attacks not claimed
1/ Jagatjyoti Talukder, an active leader of Sylhet Ganajagaran Mancha, was hacked to death in a machete attack on March 2, 2013.
2/ Then on April 9, BUET Chhatra League leader and war crimes trial campaigner Arif Raihan Dwip was attacked with a machete by Hefazat and Shibir activists. He died on July 2 while undergoing treatment.
3/ Another BUET student, Tanmoy Ahmed Moon, was severely injured in a machete attack in Gaibandha on August 11, 2013.
4/ Then on December 9, Zia Uddin Zakaria, a college teacher from Bogra and organizer of the Ganajagaran Mancha, was hacked to death in a machete attack.
5/ On October 15, 2014, three militants were arrested while trying to kill a teacher from Dhaka’s Manipur School using machetes.
6/ Shanto Mariam University student and music teacher Riyad Morshed Babu was hacked to death with machetes at his residence in Palpara, Savar on January 4, 2015.
7/ On January 11, 2015, Anjali Devi Chowdhury, a teacher at Chittagong Nursing College, was hacked to death in a machete attack.