“They have no connections with the Daesh”.
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Posts on Facebook citing friends identified three of the six attackers who were killed. That of Emory University student Abinta Kabir, a Miami resident whose family confirmed she was a US citizen, was also partially covered with a USA flag.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack and has released photos of the men it said were among the attackers, but Bangladeshi officials have denied that ISIS had any involvement.
Bangladesh police are trying to confirm the names of the attackers of a Dhaka restaurant, checking whether the identification of some on social media by friends and family is correct, Masudur Rahman, deputy police commissioner of Dhaka police, told Reuters on Monday.
Police Inspector General A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque, however, said authorities were investigating the possibility the attackers might also have had ties to the Islamic State.
“Let me clear it again, there are no ISIS or al-Qaeda presence or existence in Bangladesh…the hostage-takers were all home-grown terrorists not members of ISIS or any other worldwide Islamist outfits”, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told PTI.
On June 7, a 65-year-old Hindu priest was killed by three bike-borne assailants in western Bangladesh.
Though Islamic state has taken responsibility for the attack, the Bangladesh government clearly rejected the claims and said the attack did not have any link with any global terrorist organization and it was homegrown.
Seven gunmen armed with blades, guns and bombs also murdered two Bangladesh police officers in the attack on Friday night.
The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone late on Friday and killed 20 people, a lot of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, in an assault claimed by Islamic State.
Kabir said the family was unaware that Mubasher was being radicalized, except, in retrospect, for one clue. But the attacks were mostly isolated incidents targeting individuals like secular bloggers, LGBT activists, or professors.
Another 25 officers and one civilian were wounded, and some of the rescued hostages had injuries.
Clarifying that India is yet to assess the threat perception arising out of Dhaka attack, security sources however said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has directed states bordering Bangladesh to take some specific steps to check possible attempts by radical elements to cross over to India.
The caskets were placed on a raised platform which had the flags of India, Italy, Bangladesh, Japan and the U.S. – signifying the nationalities of the foreigners killed.
A second official said the five former hostages still being held included a Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin and a Bangladesh-born British citizen.
A Bangladeshi survivor of the massacre told how the attackers split the diners into groups of foreigners and locals, making clear that their targets were non-Muslims.
The attack took place in the city’s diplomatic enclave, and those killed were from around the globe: Italians, Japanese, Indian, Bangladeshi and an American, according to the country’s Joint Force Command.
In a televised address to the nation Saturday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina said her country would not let “conspirators succeed in their mission” to tarnish its image.
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The attack, by far the deadliest of a recent wave of killings claimed by ISIS or a local Al-Qaeda offshoot, was carried out in the upmarket Gulshan neighborhood which is home to the country’s elite and many embassies.
