Attack raises dangerous stakes
The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by Islamic State and al Qaeda.
The taking of hostages by gunmen in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter is the latest in a string of attacks that have sparked international alarm and prompted the United States and Bangladesh to promise more cooperation against violent extremism in the Muslim-majority nation.
But the two governments still tiptoe around the divisive issue of whether transnational terror groups like Islamic State are involved in the mounting bloodshed, which has included a wave of killings of liberals, foreigners and religious minorities.
Gunfighting at a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital ended yesterday afternoon when commandos rescued between eight and 10 hostages, a police official said.
Eight or nine gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades had been holding about 20 hostages, including foreigners, before police stormed the building.
Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, a deputy director at the Rapid Action Battalion force, said one foreigner, probably Japanese, was among those who escaped after more than 100 commandos launched the rescue operation.
Isis claimed responsibility for the attack on the upscale Holey Artisan restaurant, which is popular with expatriates, in the Gulshan district. It posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault.
The jihadist group said people had died. Bangladesh police denied this, saying two police officers had been killed and at least 20 people wounded.
Italian and Indian nationals were among the hostages.
Isis and al Qaeda affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the previous attacks, typically by smaller groups of machetewielding assailants, that have claimed nearly two dozen lives since 2013. The frequency of attacks has increased in recent months.
On Friday, a Hindu priest was hacked to death at a temple in Jhinaidah district, of Dhaka.
The violence over the rise of 300km southwest has stoked fears radicalism in the traditionally moderate country and cast a shadow over the achievements of its 160 million people in economic development and fighting poverty.
Bangladesh’s government has blamed domestic groups aligned with political opposition parties, and maintains that groups like Isis and al Qaeda have no presence in the country.
Critics contend that that stance reflects the country’s deeply polarised politics and the government’s increasingly authoritarian tendencies.
The US, a key aid donor and export market for Bangladesh, has voiced growing concern over the violence, particularly after a former US Embassy employee and gay rights activist was killed in April. The killing was claimed by Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh division of al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent.
Bangladesh’s response to the violence was top of the agenda at annual high-level talks in Washington last week. But Marcia Bernicat, the US ambassador to Bangladesh, said they did not delve into what kind of reach groups like Isis may have inside Bangladesh.
She says Bangladeshi officials steadfastly deny that Isis or al Qaeda are in the country, but she thinks officials recognise that the influence of those groups through social media is a danger they have to address.
Bangladeshi authorities rounded up nearly 200 suspected militants in a recent week-long crackdown coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The government has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties – especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaate-Islami – of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilise the nation, something both parties deny.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has tightened her control after easily winning 2014 elections that the opposition parties boycotted, alleging unfair conditions.