Seven militants who killed 20 people at a Dhaka restaurant made no demands and a person taken alive by police was only a suspect admitted in hospital, Bangladesh’s home minister said on Sunday, rejecting the Islamic State group’s claims of responsibility.
Advertisement
Hasina urged communities to set up anti-terrorism committees across Bangladesh, which she said was the victim of an attempt to ruin its reputation. The man was seen in a video that surfaced online, talking to one of the killers before being allowed to leave- one of the attackers had reportedly been in a student at the private university where the man has been teaching since his return.
The gunmen stormed the Holey restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone in Gulshan late on Friday. One suspect was arrested.
Most of the siege victims were from Italy, Japan, India and the United States.
The hospitality sector is also seeing cancellations, hotels are tightening security and foreign embassies are looking at reducing staffing after the attack on Friday claimed the lives of nine Italians, seven Japanese, an American, an Indian and some Bangladeshi nationals.
Instead, what they’re finding is a surprisingly posh collection of attackers, mostly from well-off families and very well-educated at the country’s better schools.
Only one of the five attended a madrassa, the son of a laborer who has been named as Khairul Islam Payel.
The bodies of 20 hostages were found in pools of blood after commandos stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery café to end the standoff, in which two policemen were also shot dead in a fierce gunbattle at its outset.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has offered Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina help in the investigation. Analysts say that the government is wary of acknowledging that groups such as I.S. or Al Qaeda are operating in Bangladesh over fears that it will frighten off foreign investors.
“He started going to prayers with his grandfather”. “The terrorists kept firing and throwing grenades at us every time we moved forward”, the report said. “There was nothing at home, no books or anything to indicate he was leaning that way, So we had no inkling”.
The Bangladesh economy is growing by more than 6% a year, but over half the nation’s college graduates are unable to find work.
Asked why they would have become jihadists, Mr Khan responded: “It has become a fashion”.
Despite the police saying IS links were being investigated, the home minister refuted the possibility that the Islamic State group directed the attack from overseas. Some went to sophisticated schools.
According to the BBC, the attackers were not students from Islamic madrassas or seminaries but come from well-to-do families and studied in private schools and universities.
Security officials said most of the victims-18 of whom were foreigners-were slaughtered with sharpened machete-style weapons. He left a year ago and his social media activity tailed off.
Aside from Chowdhury, Amarasingam said there were about three other Bangladeshis he knows of, all from the Toronto area, who joined Islamic State ranks in Syria.
“They are now undergoing treatment and we’d get to know about their role in the incident only after they recover”. “But he never came”, Kabir said. At least three of them were well-educated and from wealthy families. All three were enrolled at USA universities.
Islamic State published pictures of five of its fighters it said died in the all-night siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital Dhaka’s diplomatic zone.
They also identified gunmen Mir Samih Mubashir and Rohan Imtiaz as graduates of the upmarket Scholastica high school.
Advertisement
On Monday, hundreds of people gathered in central Dhaka to remember the victims, holding placards in different languages.
