28 killed in Dhaka attack: ISPR
Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) directorate of armed forces on Saturday said 20 bodies were recovered and six armed hostage takers were killed as the military personnel along with members of other regular forces launched an operation to end 10-hour long hostage situation.
A group of gun wielding youths numbering eight to nine and aged between 20 and 28 stormed a Spanish restaurant, Holey Artisan Bakery, in the diplomatic zone of Dhaka around 8:30pm on Friday evening, firing gunshots and charging bombs.
Witnesses said the gunmen were carrying swords and chanting ‘Allahu-Akbar’ while storming the restaurant.
According to the survivors' estimate, there were over 50 diners, including at least 20 foreigners, at the Holey Artisan Bakery on Road 79, which is popular with foreigners, when the gunmen held them hostage.
As several members of law enforcers sustained bullet wounds, two of them died later, during the first attempt to free the hostages at 10:30pm on Friday, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) director general Benazir Ahmed said the authorities would be trying to end the Gulshan hostage crisis “peacefully”, by holding talks with the gunmen.
Hours after holding the restaurant diners hostage, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group has tweeted that the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant aka ISIL aka ISIS aka IS claimed the responsibility for the Dhaka hostage.
The IS also claimed that they have killed a total of 24 people from different nationalities and released the pictures of the grisly murder through its news agency Amaq.
Over 10 hours inside the hostage crisis, the authorities launched an operation of combined forces led by the military at dawn on Saturday.
Director of Military Operations brigadier general Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury briefed newsmen, at the army headquarters in the capital Dhaka, about the outcome of the operation named “Operation Thunderbolt”.
“At least six terrorists were killed in the operation as 13 people were rescued including a Japanese citizen and two Sri Lankans,” the army officer told the media briefing.
“Bodies of 20 people, most of whom were killed with sharp weapons early last night, were recovered," he added.
At the media briefing, the army official said all of 20 killed by hostage-takers are foreign nationals.
But ISPR director lieutenant colonel Rashidul Hasan later told the Prothom Alo that the 20 people who were killed by gunmen early Saturday included Bangladeshis.
He, however, couldn’t confirm the number of Bangladeshis killed in the mindless brutalities.
Joint forces of Army and Navy commandos along with members of police, RAB and BGB conducted the 45-minute operation at the restaurant around 7:40am on Saturday.
He also thanked the print and television media for their support during the operation.
As the gunmen holed up in the restaurant with about 50 restaurant visitors trapped inside, a group of police men tried to enter the restaurant around 10:30pm, but they had to face a deadly jolt as the gunmen reacted with charging powerful bombs and firing gunshots.
At least 30 police officials sustained bullet injuries and two of them - Banani police officer-in-charge Salauddin and assistant commissioner of police Rabiul Islam - died later.
Shortly after that, elite force RAB director general visited the spot and told waiting newsmen that the authorities would talk to the hostage-takers to resolve the hostage crisis peacefully.
To the end, he asked the newsmen to stop live telecast on affairs regarding the crisis.
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