Bangladesh seeks evidence in attack
DHAKA, Bangladesh – Security officials searched on Sunday for evidence and the possible masterminds of the weekend hostage-taking in an upscale restaurant in Bangladesh’s capital. The government has denied the Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility for the attack that left 28 dead, including six attackers and 20 of the hostages.
Police released photographs of the bodies of five attackers, along with their first names: Akash, Badhon, Bikash, Don and Ripon. The men belonged to the banned domestic group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB, and their families hadn’t heard from them in months, according to police. Asked whether they might also have had Islamic State ties, Police Inspector General A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque said authorities were investigating that possibility.
Despite the police saying IS links were being investigated, the home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, rejected the possibility that the Islamic State directed the attack from abroad. Bangladesh’s government insists the extremist Sunni Muslim group based in Syria and Iraq has no presence in the country, and in the past has suggested that any claims of responsibility for violence waged in the South Asian country are simply opportunistic attempts at grabbing global attention.
“They are all Bangladeshis. They are from rich families, they have good educational background,” Khan said of the attackers. Authorities said one surviving suspect was being interrogated.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has accused her political opponents of trying to create chaos by backing domestic militants.
“Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act,” Hasina said Saturday. “They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism.”
On Sunday morning, the first of two days of national mourning for the victims, police were blocking all access to streets near the Holey Artisan Bakery where the siege occurred. Investigators from both Bangladesh and Japan visited the restaurant to collect evidence.
The 20 hostages who were killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian teenager. Two police officers were killed by the attackers, and 13 people were rescued when commandos stormed the restaurant Saturday morning. Another 25 officers and one civilian were wounded, and some of the rescued hostages had injuries. The hospitals treating them would not give fresh information on their conditions Sunday.
Unlike the previous attacks, the assailants were well-prepared and heavily armed with guns, bombs and sharp objects that police later said were used to torture some of the 35 captives; furthermore, the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh’s capital.
The hostages were asked to recite verses from the Quran to prove themselves Muslim, according to a witness. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were tortured and slain.