DHAKA: Bangladesh blamed “homegrown” Islamist terrorists and Pakistan on Sunday for the worst terror attack in which 20 hostages were hacked to death, ruling out the role of the Islamic State, the Hindustan Times reported.
“Let me clear it again, there is no ISIS or al-Qaeda presence or existence in Bangladesh... the hostage-takers were all home-grown terrorists not members of ISIS or any other international Islamist outfits,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said.
“We know them (the hostage-takers) along with their ancestors; they all grew up here in Bangladesh... they belong to homegrown outfits like JMB (Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh),” he said.
Hossain Toufique Imam, Political Adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the way in which the hostages were killed with machetes suggests the role of a local terrorist group, the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.
“The Pakistan and Jamaat connection is well known... they want to derail the current government,” Imam told a TV channel.“The arrested terrorist pulled out at the last minute out of fear and he holds the key to crucial details,” he said.
Hostages who were killed include a young Indian group, the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.“Pakistan and Jamaat connection is well known... they want to derail the current government,” Imam told a TV channel.
“The arrested terrorist pulled out at the last minute out of fear and he holds the key to crucial details,” he said.Hostages who were killed include a young Indian woman, Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the people who were killed. Most of those killed had their throats slit.
Among those rescued were Indians, Sri Lankans and Japanese nationals, media reports said. Around 30 people were injured.A police source was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune that all the attackers were Bangladeshi nationals aged between 20 and 28.
Police said the attackers were well-educated and most came from rich families.“All of them were students and communicated at the crime scene in both Bengali and English,” the police source said.
AFP adds: Bangladesh on Sunday said the attackers who slaughtered 20 hostages at a restaurant were well-educated followers of a homegrown militant outfit who found extremism “fashionable”, denying links to the Islamic State.
As the country held services to mourn the victims of the siege in Dhaka, details emerged of how the attackers spared the lives of Muslims while herding foreigners to their deaths.And although the IS claimed responsibility for the attack at the Western-style cafe on Friday night, the government stuck to its line that international jihadist networks had not gained a foothold in Bangladesh.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told AFP the killers — six of whom were shot dead in the siege — were members of the homegrown militant outfit Jamaeytul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a group banned over a decade ago.“They have no connections with the Islamic State,” Khan said.
National police chief Shahidul Haque told reporters that investigators would explore the possibility of “an international link” but added that “primarily, we suspect they are JMB members”.
The bodies of 20 hostages were found in pools of blood after commandos stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe to end the standoff, in which two policemen were also shot dead in a fierce gunbattle at its outset.
Six of the gunmen were killed by the commandos in the final stages of the siege, but one was taken alive and was being interrogated by Bangladeshi intelligence.Security officials said most of the victims — 18 of whom were foreigners — were slaughtered with sharpened machete-style weapons.
A Bangladeshi worker at the cafe who survived the massacre told how the attackers split the diners into groups of foreigners and locals, making clear that their targets were non-Muslims.“They took me and two of my colleagues and forced us to sit on chairs, with our heads down on the table,” the survivor told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“They asked me whether I was a Muslim. As I said yes, they said they won’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.
“They warned us not to raise our heads but at one point I raised my head slightly and saw a bloodied body on the floor.”The worker described the killers as appearing to be university-educated, a point echoed by Khan.Asked why they would have become IS militants, the minister said: “It has become a fashion.”
The attack, by far the deadliest of a recent wave of killings claimed by IS or a local Al-Qaeda offshoot, was carried out in the upmarket Gulshan neighbourhood, which is home to the country’s elite and many embassies.
Originally published in The News