Six armed men stormed into the Holey Artisan Bakery
situated in a diplomatic area of Dhaka and killed 20 people, all
foreigners. The gunmen were also killed at the end of the 11-hour siege
and one was captured alive. Around 30 people were injured and 13 of the
hostages rescued.
According
to SITE Intel Group, the Islamic State has released names and pictures
of the terrorists. All the attackers were students of Dhaka’s North
South University. According to reports, they were in their early 20s and
also seem to be from affluent families and went to good schools.
Terrorism monitoring group Terror Monitor also published the men’s photos
and identified the attackers as Abu Omar, Abu Salmah, Abu Rahim, Abu
Muslim and Abu Muharib al-Bengali.
the other hand, Bangladesh Home Minister HM Asaduzamman told the media
that the terrorists involved in the attack were members of a local group
called Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). He also added that these
local terrorists tried to contact ISIS.
spent the night being literally sick with fear as he listened to the
haunting screams of diners being hacked to death.
Dhaka’s upmarket Gulshan neighbourhood, said his life was spared by the
gang of hostage-takers because he was a Muslim.
that he would ever emerge alive from the 11-hour ordeal which began at
around night.
burst the restaurant firing their weapons and I could hear them
shouting Allahu Akbar,” he said. “They took me and two of my colleagues
and forced us to sit on chairs, with our heads down on the table.
asked me whether I was a Muslim. As I said yes, they said they
wouldn’t harm or kill any Muslims. They will only kill the non-Muslims.
All the time I prayed to Allah, keeping my head down. Several times I
vomited.
restaurant,” said the employee. “We heard a lot of screaming and cries
and firing in the first few minutes. After that there was a long pause.
Around we heard some fresh gunfire and then there was a lull.”
Bangladeshi guests sitting like us at another table. Everyone was
silent. Late in the night, they asked us whether we were fasting as it’s
Ramadan. We said yes and they brought some food for us so we could eat
before daybreak. I only managed to eat a little bit and drank some
water.
siege. They walked from one room to another. They never sat down. When
they realised that troops might storm the building, they came
to our room one last time and told us not to tarnish the name of Islam,
be a good Muslim and uphold the pride of Islam.
said they had no intention of hurting us as we were Muslims. Then they
left the room and we heard a lot of firing. A few minutes
later, everything stopped. I raised my head and went to the bathroom.
Then the troops came and brought us out. I never believed that I would
see another day. Those hours were the longest in my life.”
Source: SITE/Terror Monitor/AFP