Privileged sons suspected in Bangladesh siege
Educated in top schools, the group of young men don’t fit usual militant profile
NEW DELHI— The young men had been missing for months. Their families sensed something was wrong. Some had come from privileged backgrounds, had grown up loved and were educated in top schools. They had bright futures.
It wasn’t until the horror of the weekend hostage crisis in Bangladesh’s capital unfolded that they learned their sons had become radicalized as religious extremists and launched one of the country’s deadliest attacks in recent years. All five died in the siege.
The young men, armed with knives, bombs and automatic firearms, engaged in a gun battle with police, killing two and injuring more, then seized a popular restaurant in a Dhaka neighbourhood on Friday night and held some 35 people hostage, including a Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin and a Bangladeshborn British citizen.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media about the investigation. The official said authorities were looking into the backgrounds of the five people and questioning their families and friends.
Global Affairs Canada and consular officials at the High Commission of Canada in Dhaka said they had not received any reports of a Canadian citizen being detained.
Over the next few hours, they would kill 20, including nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian teenager and three students at U.S. universities. A witness said some victims were tortured when they could not recite verses from the Qur’an.
“This is very painful. He killed innocent people,” said the aunt of one of the attackers, Rohan Imtiaz, whose father is a leader in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s governing Awami League party. “We sensed that Rohan was changing and his behaviour increasingly became different,” she told The Associated Press in disbelief.
As details emerged of the men who laid siege to the Holey Artisan Bakery, it became clear that the attackers did not fit the typical profile for religious radicals coming from economically deprived backgrounds and latching onto extremist groups that promised a new future. Some analysts said that’s what made them attractive as recruits; their backgrounds meant they would not raise suspicions.
“They do not fit the usual stereotype of the madrassa-educated youth,” said Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, a former Indian diplomat and policy expert on Bangladesh for the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. “My suspicion is that these young men were roped in by spotters or recruiters.”
He said the fact they don’t fit the militant profile gave credibility to claims they were part of a campaign waged by extremist groups abroad.
“This is a conscious decision on their part, that they will get this kind of people,” Chakravarty said. “The shock value for the radical groups of recruiting educated, affluent people is huge. The government will never suspect them. The intelligence agencies will never suspect them. Because these boys were never under any kind of surveillance.”
Daesh, in claiming responsibility for the attack, had published photos of the five smiling young men posing in front of a black Daesh flag.