Islamic State – Bengal Province
Islamic State – Bengal Province (IS-BP) is an administrative division of the Islamic State, a Salafi jihadist militant group and former unrecognised Quasi-state. The group was announced by ISIL as its province in 2016. The first emir of Wilayat al-Bengal, Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, is believed to be Mohammad Saifullah Ozaki (born as Sajit Chandra Debnath, 1982) a Bangladeshi Japanese economist who went to Syria in 2015 and joined IS. A Hindu convert to Islam, he reportedly led the 2016 Dhaka attack. He was detained in Iraq in 2019 and Abu Muhammed al-Bengali was announced as the new emir of the province.
| Islamic State – Bengal Province | |
|---|---|
Logo of The Bengal Province | |
| Leaders | Abul Abbas al-Bengali |
| Dates of operation | 2016 – Present |
| Headquarters | No Headquarter |
| Active regions | Bangladesh |
| Ideology | Salafist Jihadist Islamism |
| Size | unknown |
| Part of | Islamic State |
| Allies | Islamic State |
| Opponents | |
| Battles and wars | Internal conflict in Bangladesh |
Neo-Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, an offshoot of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (Al-Qaeda affiliated), effectively operates as the main IS branch in Bangladesh.
It has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under the SDN by the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, with addresses in Dhaka, Rangpur, Sylhet and Jhenaidah. It has also been designated as a Terrorist Organization by Canada.