victims to death, before six attackers were gunned down by Bangladesh
commandos at the end of an overnight siege on July 2 at an upmarket
restaurant.
As the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
claimed responsibility for the carnage at the start of the Eid holiday,
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she was determined to eradicate
militancy in the mainly Muslim nation.
Survivors told of how the
hostage-takers separated locals from the foreigners who were eating
side-by-side before embarking on a killing spree which was brought to an
end 11 hours later in a fierce gunbattle.
Although there was no
exact breakdown of the casualties, the army said most of the slain
civilians were either Italian or Japanese. Most had been slaughtered
with sharpened weapons.
Two police officers were also killed at the start of the siege while a total of six attackers were shot dead at its finale.
One of the assailants was captured alive and arrested, the army said.
Hasina’s
government has previously blamed a string of deadly attacks, targeting
religious minorities and foreigners, on her domestic opponents but the
incident will heighten fears that IS’s reach is spreading.
“It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people?” said Hasina in a televised address.
The attack, by far the deadliest of a recent wave of killings claimed by IS or a local Al-Qaeda offshoot, was carried out in a neighborhood which is home to the country’s elite and houses many of the major embassies.
Announcing
the end of the siege, officials said that 13 hostages had been rescued
after members of an elite force took control of the cafe and shot dead
six of the gunmen.
But while Hasina called the outcome a “success,” the security forces later revealed that 20 of those taken captive were killed.
“We’ve
recovered 20 bodies. Most them had been brutally hacked to death with
sharp weapons,” an army spokesman, Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq
Chowdhury, told reporters.
Another senior army officer then confirmed that all 20 were foreigners.
“All
20 of the hostages who were killed were foreigners…. Most of them
were Italian or Japanese,” Lieutenant Shahab Uddin told AFP without
giving an exact breakdown.
A Japanese government official said
its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had told Hasina in a phone call that
several Japanese nationals may have been inside. Italian Foreign
Minister Paolo Gentiloni also talked on the phone with his Bangladeshi
counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.
Foreigners and Bangladeshis
could be seen standing outside the upmarket Holey Artisan Bakery cafe
after the siege, still awaiting news on their loved ones inside.
Commandos could also be seen roaming nearby rooftops.
Witnesses
recounted how a massive gunfight erupted on July 2 morning as more than
100 commandos launched the rescue operation, nearly 11 hours after the
siege began shortly before 9.30 pm.
Eight hostages including a
foreigner were rescued in the first few minutes of the operation. TV
footage showed ambulances rushing some of those who had been freed to a
military hospital.
“It was a horrendous night,” said Diego Rossini, an Argentine chef who managed to escape through a terrace during the siege.
“They
(the hostage-takers) had automatic weapons and bombs,” he said on
Argentinian TV as he described how he eventually managed to escape into
the next-door building despite coming under fire.
“I felt bullets pass so close to me, I felt fear like I’ve never felt in my life.”
The father of one of the survivors was told by his son how the hostage-takers separated the locals from foreigners.
“They (the foreigners) were taken to the upper floor and the Bangladeshis were kept around a table,” Rezaul Karim told AFP.
“My daughter-in-law wears a hijab. Maybe that helped save the whole family.”
Heavily
armed police and paramilitary guards cordoned off the area around the
restaurant after the militants launched their attack and then became
involved in a fierce firefight with police.
Police said that two
officers, including the head of the local police station were killed.
Hasina said that 30 officers were injured.
The attack follows a series of killings targeting religious minorities and foreigners.
Earlier
on July 2, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in western
Bangladesh and a Hindu priest was stabbed and critically wounded early
July 2 in the southwest of the country.
The government and police
blame homegrown militants for the killings, which they say are part of a
plot to destabilize the country.
Bangladesh’s main Islamist
party has been banned from contesting polls and most of its leaders have
been arrested or else executed after recent trials over their role in
the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Hasina called on all Bangladeshis to “resist these terrorists.”
“My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh,” she added.
Last
month authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on local jihadist
groups, arresting more than 11,000 people, under pressure to act on the
spate of killings.
But many rights groups allege the arrests were arbitrary or were a way to silence political opponents of the government.
