With the spectacular resurgence of Islamic State in 2014, one thing is clear: the terrorist group has a larger game plan. A plan that seeks to spread its tentacles beyond the Middle East and Africa to other parts of the Muslim world, including South Asia and, in particular, Bangladesh.
Over the past few years, Bangladesh has witnessed a series of barbaric attacks on a wide group of individuals, including foreign nationals, religious figures, bloggers, professors, Christian converts, Hindus, LGBT activists and the police. The July 1 attack at Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in central Dhaka, where 22 Bangladeshis and foreign nationals died after being tortured, shot and hacked, was a suicide mission by the six young terrorists. On July 7, another attack took the lives of two policemen and a woman at the country's largest Eid gathering - held to mark the end of Ramadan, the holy fasting month -- in Dhaka's Kishoreganj district.
