Share

Father of restaurant attacker: Other Bangladeshi men missing

Two Bangladeshi police officers also were killed.

Advertisement

Police on Tuesday also registered a case against five of the six dead attackers, Islam said, which they need to do to begin formal investigations which includes questioning of their families.

“Over the weekend we became aware through social media discussions that some of the alleged perpetrators of the Bangladeshi terror attacks had reportedly at one time studied at Monash Malaysia as well as attending other universities and schools”, Monash University Malaysia spokesman Dr Susheela Nair said in a statement.

Foreign security experts say the scale and sophistication of the strike on the Holey Artisan Bakery pointed to some level of guidance from global militant groups.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the wake of the deadly attack said the sovereignty of Bangladesh was won with the blood of million martyrs and will never be compromised.

The five gunmen of the Gulshan attack were shot dead by commandos who took control of the case nearly 12 hours after the youths launched the attack on the upscale eatery. Police said their families had not been in contact with them for months.

The Islamic State video released in a SITE Intelligence site on Wednesday.

“If you look at the profiles of many militants, those who have gone from Europe or Canada or the U.S.to fight [with Islamic State] in Syria, many if not most have come from middle class, established families”, said Ali Riaz, a professor at Illinois State University who studies radical Islamism in South Asia.

Another terrorist warned the Bangladeshi government that “the jihad you see today is not the same that you knew in the past”.

However, he said it was unclear if they were gunmen or victims.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said instead the jihadists were members of a homegrown militant group – Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB – which has been banned in the country for more than a decade. They appeared to single out non-Muslims, telling one Muslim patron, “You people don’t have to be afraid”.

Army commandos rescued 13 hostages from the restaurant after killing five gunmen.

Police have eight people in custody, including one described as an attacker, but no one has been formally arrested as a suspect.

Responding to the video, the Bangladeshi police said they were stepping up security in the country. IS terrorists and al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS) have claimed responsibility for numerous attacks.

Advertisement

The hostage siege was the worst of recent militant attacks in Bangladesh, after previous killings were carried out by young men wielding cleavers and machetes and targeting atheists and other individuals accused of being enemies of Islam.

Emory University said a vigil is planned to remember two students killed when a group of armed extremists stormed a restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh