BANGLADESH OFFICIAL DOUBTS ISIL’S CLAIM FOR HOSTAGE-TAKING ASSAULT
Six young invaders belonged to a banned local group, home minister says
Bangladesh began two days of mourning Sunday for the 22 victims of the weekend hostage-taking assault, as a government official doubted the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility.
The attackers who killed 20 hostages and two police officers at a restaurant in the capital of Dhaka belonged to a banned domestic group, Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, and were not followers of the Islamic State, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told Agence France-Presse and other media outlets.
The men had all apparently vanished from their normal lives some months ago, police told reporters following the attack that ended Saturday morning with six attackers killed.
“They are all Bangladeshis. They are from rich families, they have good educational background,” Khan said Sunday of the attackers, according to the Associated Press. One surviving suspect was detained when the 10-hour standoff ended Saturday morning, and authorities said he was being interrogated.
Police Inspector General A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque, however, said authorities were investigating the possibility the attackers might also have had ties to the Islamic State.
Three students from American universities were among those killed in Friday’s siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery in an upscale neighborhood in the capital. The 20 hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladeshi American. Thirteen hostages were rescued.
In a nationally televised address, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called upon the secular country’s “peace-loving resi- dents” to resist religious violence.
“What you want to achieve by killing people? Islam is the religion of peace. Stop killing people in the name Islam. ... Don’t pollute the holy religion. Come back to the right track and uphold the dignity of Islam,” Hasina said, the
Dhaka Tribune reported. The attack appears to mark an escalation from previous violence that targeted foreigners, activists and bloggers across Bangladesh, in many cases killings committed by men wielding machetes.
The militants who took over the restaurant in the heart of the city’s diplomatic quarter were well-prepared and heavily armed with guns, bombs and large knives or swords, which police said were used to torture some hostages or mutilate bodies once dead.
Video posted online of the attack shows one gunman guarding the glass door of the café, wearing a backpack and brandishing a rife. It also shows several people being released, reportedly because they were able to recite verses from the Quran.
Authorities ended the siege by crashing armored vehicles into the restaurant to rescue the hostages, firing dozens of gunshots and then tossing what appeared to be grenades or flash-bang explosives into the building.
During the siege, the attackers posted pictures from inside the restaurant to Isalmic State-affiliated websites, CNN reported. The U.S. State Department in February cautioned Americans considering travel to Bangladesh.
“They are all Bangladeshis. They are from rich families, they have good educational background.” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, speaking of the six terrorist attackers who were killed