Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, the so-called chief of IS fighters in Bangladesh, has made the claim in an interview to the latest issue of its propaganda magazine Dabiq.

Bangladesh government has been asserting that the leaders and workers of Jamaat, which opposed a secular Bangladesh’s independence from Islamic Pakistan in 1971, were engaged in militant activities. But the Islamist party has always refuted the allegations.

The group has claimed credit for several attacks in Bangladesh, including the murders of foreigners and attacks on Shias and Ahmadiyyas.

But the government and the security forces have denied the presence of the group in the country.

In the Dabiq interview published on Wednesday, Hanif was asked that with the government’s execution of several Jamaat leaders, had its followers taken a lesson?

Hanif replied that Jamaat leaders were facing the same fate as those of ‘sahwāt’ in Iraq and ‘the Ikhwān’ in Egypt, “as the sunnah of Allah never changes. He will humiliate and punish in this world and the Hereafter whoever abandons the religion and allies with the kuffār”.

“There are some grassroots level followers and supporters of “Jamaat-e-Islami” who have repented from their shirk and joined the ranks of the Khilāfah’s soldiers in Bengal, walhamdulillāh,” he added.

He claimed credit for some recent attacks in Bangladesh and said the IS targeted “the crusaders, the Rāfidah, the Qādiyāniyyah, the Hindus, the missionaries” in the attacks.

The so-called IS Bangladesh leader also termed ruling Awami League ‘pro-India’ and called its rival BNP ‘pro-Pakistan’.

The Dabiq issue claimed one ‘Abū Jandal’ from Bangladesh was among IS fighters who died in the Middle-East during training.

It identified Jandal as a son of an army officer who was killed during the 2009 BDR mutiny.

In the nine-page interview, Hanif said IS chose Bangladesh as its base in South Asia due to the country’s ‘important strategic geographic position’ and attacks in India and Myanmar would be coordinated from here.

India is not on the list of a number of countries, including some in Europe, that have suffered IS attacks.

Islamic State surfaced in the 2013 as the influence of al-Qaeda began to wane. It emerged as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) by taking control of swaths of the countries and declared the so-called caliphate.