An international security expert has said terrorist organisation Islamic State has presence in Bangladesh and that it carried out the Gulshan attack last year, something the Bangladesh authorities have repeatedly denied.

“The group that mounted the Holey Artisan attack is not the JMB. In fact, it is the IS,” Prof Rohan Gunaratna, head of International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, told a regional conference in Dhaka yesterday.

Presenting his paper, “Deradicalisation of Militant: An Approach for Disengagement and Reintegration into Society,” Gunaratna said police should have immediately responded to the Holey Artisan attack and not wait for the commandos to come.