Five of the seven gunmen who attacked a Dhaka restaurant Saturday killing 20 people were militants police had tried to arrest previously.
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Gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital’s diplomatic quarter on Friday evening, rounding up foreign hostages before murdering 20 people with explosives and machetes, in a brutal targeting of the small expat community. The claims have not been confirmed but Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said neither Islamic State nor al Qaeda was involved.
The attack was the worst in the recent series of attacks by jihadist extremists in Bangladesh.
“They asked me whether I was a Muslim. They have good educational backgrounds”, said Mr Khan of the attackers. “But they are successful in their own right and do indicate that we will see more attempts”, said Byman, also a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
“Please stop this, stop this, stop this from our society, from our country, I want to live in peace”.
As Dhaka limped back to normal life, experts questioned the delay in launching the offensive against the militants.
Bangladeshi commandos rescued 13 people after a standoff that lasted approximately 10 hours.
As usual with Islamic State, this attack was distinguished…
“Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee”, Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward.
The industry had been recovering strongly from a major tragedy three years ago, when a factory building collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people, prompting safety checks that led to many factory closures and the loss of exports and jobs.
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.
“Turkey has been very vulnerable to terrorism”, said Bulent Aliriza, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the attacks were mostly isolated incidents targeting individuals like secular bloggers, LGBT activists, or professors.
Gunmen singled out foreigners as soon as they stormed through the doors of the restaurant popular with expatriates.
The Bangladeshis were later told to close their eyes and recite verses from the Koran. One militant cursed a Bangladeshi for eating with non-Muslims during Ramadan, the source said.
Bangladesh’s Information and Broadcasting Minister said, “This attack on the restaurant in Dhaka, was conducted by homegrown terrorists of Bangladesh and they are out to unsettle an elected constitutional government”. Bangladesh has blamed JMB and another home-grown outfit for the wave of grisly killings over the past year and a half.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said a government plane was headed to Bangladesh to retrieve Italian citizens killed in the massacre.
He added that the more desperate the Islamic State becomes, the more the group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, will rely on amateurs.
“Anyone who believes in religion can not do such act”, Hasina said.
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“We officially did not release any picture of the attackers killed from our police headquarters, but somehow you got the photos”.
