Ansar Al Islam banned

Extremist outfit Ansar Al Islam, which claimed responsibilities for killing leading LGBT activist Xulhaz Mannan and other secular writers, has been banned.
AK Mofizul Haque, joint secretary (political-1) of home affairs ministry, confirmed the news on Sunday.
A gazette issued on March 1 by the home ministry reads ‘it is deemed that the “announced activities” of the extremist organisation group Ansar Al Islam’ are against the law and order of the country. 
It says that the outfit has been declared banned because its activities have been considered a threat to public security.
With this, police headquarters special task group chief Moniruzzaman said, six extremist groups including Jama’at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Ansarullah Bangla Team and Shahadat-e al-Hikma were banned so far.
On April 25, 2016, Xulhaz, also a USAID official, who had also worked as protocol officer for US ambassador in Dhaka, and Khandaker Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, who worked with theatre group Lokanatya Dal, were hacked to death inside an apartment in the capital’s Kalabagan.
The killings triggered local and international condemnations while real suspects were yet to be arrested.
A graphic message twittered by Ansar Al Islam spokesperson Mufti Abdullah Ashraf reads, ‘The mujahideen of Ansar Al Islam (AQIS Bangladesh branch) were able to assassin Xulhaz Mannan and his associate Samir Mahbub Tonoy. They were the pioneers of practicing and promoting homosexuality in Bangladesh.’
It said, ‘Xulhaz was director of Roopbaan (a cult comprised of the gays and the lesbians) while Samir Mahbub Tonoy was one of its most important activist.’
A number of counter-terrorism officials said the extremist youths initially organised an online platform under the name of Ansarullah Bangla Team, which engaged in crimes including fatal attacks and murders of secular bloggers from 2013 to 2015 and a bank heist in April 2015.
They also claimed responsibility for the murder of three bloggers — Avijit Roy, Oyasiqur Rahman Babu and Ananta Bijoy Das, and murder of Rajshahi University sociology professor AKM Shafiul Islam.
The group was outlawed by the home ministry on May 25, 2015, days after the bank robbery.
Counter-terrorism officials said after the banning of the ABT, the youths regrouped under the name of Ansar Al Islam, which they in their twitter account had claimed affiliation with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. 

- See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/10546/ansar-al-islam-banned#sthash.0F5LWmkH.dpuf