AQIS May Be Eyeing Bangladesh for New Cells
The UN Security Council's 38th Al-Qaida/ISIL Monitoring Team report warns that AQIS is trying to exploit Bangladesh to establish terrorist cells, and formally attributes the November 2025 Red Fort blast in Delhi to the group.
In a Nutshell:
- The UN monitoring team said the November 2025 Red Fort attack in Delhi was officially attributed to Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
- The report recorded “some concern” that AQIS may be seeking to exploit Bangladesh to establish cells. It does not identify any confirmed AQIS cell, operative, leader or base in Bangladesh.
- After the report’s release, Bangladesh police said they were reviewing possible links to individuals and networks already under surveillance but had no specific information confirming AQIS cells in Bangladesh.
- The overall threat from Al-Qaida and ISIL remained broadly unchanged, but intensified in the Sahel and South Asia, according to the monitoring team.
Context
The finding is contained in the 38th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, submitted under Security Council Resolution 2734 (2024). Circulated as S/2026/651 on 10 August 2026, the report covers developments between 16 December 2025 and 9 June 2026. The report identifies AQIS as “not listed” under the UN ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions regime. It says the organisation has evolved from a fragmented group into a regional terrorist entity, developing logistics and financial networks and favouring small, decentralised and dispersed cells over large units.
Why it matters
For Bangladesh, the significance lies in the UN report’s indication that AQIS may be looking to exploit the country to establish cells, rather than in any confirmation that such a network already exists. The report describes AQIS as evolving from a fragmented group into a regional terrorist entity with growing logistical and financial networks, and an increasing reliance on small, dispersed cells; an operating model that is harder for security agencies to detect than large, hierarchical organisations The report also officially attributes the November 2025 Red Fort attack in Delhi to AQIS, bringing the group’s regional threat profile into sharper focus. In a South Asian environment where the UN says the threat has intensified, Bangladesh has an interest in ensuring that its territory, financial channels, online spaces and border routes cannot be used for recruitment, facilitation or logistics.
What we think
The UN had previously flagged AQIS’s potential expansion into Bangladesh in a July 2023 Security Council monitoring report. On 12 August 2026, the CTTC and the Bomb Disposal Unit recovered 14 pipe bombs, bomb making materials, TATP and JMB leaflets from a rented room in Shyampur, Hemayetpur, after detaining Arif Hossain. If the recent bomb making operations do involve Neo JMB, the possibility of further militant attacks becomes a serious concern, particularly given the group's history of carrying out coordinated attacks across the country. The case nevertheless underscores the danger of small, low-visibility extremist cells, a model that overlaps with the decentralised threat described by the UN. This issue may surface in upcoming Bangladesh–India bilateral engagements.