Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

20 hostages killed in Bangladesh, many "brutally hacked to death"

Around 20 people of different nationalities are being held hostage.

Bangladesh Attack Police in Bangladesh helping an unidentified injured person after the attack AP Photo AP Photo

Updated 9am Saturday

ARMED MILITANTS KILLED 20 civilians after taking them hostage in a Bangladesh cafe overnight and many of the victims were hacked to death, an army spokesman said on Saturday

“We’ve recovered 20 bodies. Most them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons,” army spokesman Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury told reporters.

The army said that most of the hostage victims were Italian or Japanese.

Last night, Bangladeshi security forces ended a siege after storming a cafe in Dhaka where dozens of diners had been held captive through the night and shot dead six of the hostage-takers.

Police said at least 13 hostages, including three foreigners, had been rescued after commandos took control of the cafe in the upmarket Gulshan quarter.

Two police officers were also killed at the start of the siege as they battled the hostage-takers who were heavily armed with explosives.

The Islamic State organisation claimed responsibility for the attack which follows a series of gruesome killings of religious minorities, foreigners and liberal activists in the mainly Muslim nation.

“The operation is over. The situation is completely under control,” army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP.

Bangladesh Attack Bangladeshi security personnel stand guard near the restaurant last night. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she was determined to eradicate terrorism in Bangladesh following the attack.

“It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don’t have any religion,” she said in a televised speech.

People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh.

‘Gunned down’

Tuhin Mohammad Masud, a commander of the elite Rapid Action Battalion which led the storming operation, said the cafe itself had been cleared but added that some of the hostage-takers might still be at large.

“We have gunned down six of the terrorists” Masud told India’s Times Now television channel.

The main area that they have been occupying has been cleared… Maybe some of them have escaped into a larger area.

Bangladesh Attack People helping an unidentified injured person AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

An AFP photographer at the scene said he could hear a massive gunfight as security forces launched the rescue operation more than 10 hours after militants seized the hostages on Friday night.

Eight hostages including a foreigner were rescued in the first few minutes of the operation, a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

TV footage showed ambulances rushing some of those who had been rescued to a military hospital.

Sri Lanka’s government said two of its nationals were among the hostages rescued and were safe and unharmed.

Bangladesh Attack An unidentified injured security personnel is taken for medical attention after the incident. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Gulshan which is Dhaka’s wealthiest neighbourhood and home to many embassies.

Police said the gunmen burst into the restaurant shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greater) as people were having dinner at around 9:20pm and set off explosives.

Italy’s ambassador Mario Palma told Italian state television seven Italians were among the hostages. Japan said some of its nationals may also have been among the captives.

Some diners managed to escape including an Argentine chef and a Bangladeshi man who took refuge in an adjacent building.

‘Whole building was shaking’

Some managed to speak to relatives by phone, reporting there were up to 40 people trapped inside, around half of them foreigners.

Bangladesh Attack AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Another had told relatives he feared they would be killed if police tried to storm the restaurant to end the siege.

“He is very nervous,” the man’s uncle, who had spoken to him by phone, told AFP.

The restaurant’s supervisor Sumon Reza who escaped by jumping from the roof told a local newspaper there were 20 foreigners being held hostage.

“I was in the roof. The whole building was shaking when they set off explosives,” he said.

Bangladesh has been reeling from a wave of murders of religious minorities and secular activists by suspected Islamist militants.

But those murders generally only involved a handful of assailants while the latest attack appears to have been on a much bigger scale and the first time that people were held hostage.

Popular with foreigners

The IS-linked Amaq news agency said the group was behind the attack and that “more than 20 people of different nationalities (were) killed”.

It later issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the cafe.

The pictures, which were not immediately possible to verify, showed what appeared to be a number of bodies lying in pools of blood.

Heavily armed police and paramilitary guards cordoned off the area around the restaurant after the militants launched their attack and then became involved in a firefight with police.

Bangladesh Attack Hosne Ara Karim, whose son and daughter-in-law were rescued from the restaurant attacked by the militants. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

“Two police officers including the head of Banani police station were killed. It appeared they were hit by bullets and splinters from a grenade,” deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Sheikh Nazmul Alam told AFP.

Up to 20 police officers were injured.

The attack, which comes as Bangladesh observes the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, follows a series of killings targeting religious minorities and foreigners.

Earlier Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in western Bangladesh and a Hindu priest was stabbed and critically wounded early Saturday in the southwest of the country.

The government and police blame homegrown militants for the killings, which they say are part of a plot to destabilise the country.

Last month authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on local jihadist groups, arresting more than 11,000 people, under pressure to act on the spate of killings.

But many rights groups allege the arrests were arbitrary or were a way to silence political opponents of the government.

- © AFP, 2016 

Read: “I did the shootings”: Transcripts show Orlando gunman acted with ‘chilling calm’

Also: Gunman dead after barricading himself into German cinema

Author
View 163 comments
Close
163 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Damocles
    Favourite Damocles
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 7:14 PM

    Piers Morgan doesn’t seem to mind being called a wnaker if it means a 50 quid donation for fighting cancer.

    Which seems quite reasonable of him.

    279
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dáithí O Raghailaigh
    Favourite Dáithí O Raghailaigh
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 7:14 PM

    I do it for nothing . he’s a NOB

    66
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pixie McMullen
    Favourite Pixie McMullen
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 7:15 PM

    I just insulted Piers Morgan for free, after you call him a #megabollox or a #giantdouche, simply tell him you donated 50 quid.

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keith O'Reilly
    Favourite Keith O'Reilly
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 8:11 PM

    Amazing, and for a good cause too!

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dermot Quinn
    Favourite Dermot Quinn
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 8:33 PM

    Well done everyone for completely killing the craic here.

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kenneth Hayden
    Favourite Kenneth Hayden
    Report
    Oct 27th 2018, 12:55 AM

    @Dermot Quinn:
    It’s our culture,Boss.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tom Molloy
    Favourite Tom Molloy
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 8:24 PM

    Twitter can give an outlet for so much that would go unnoticed. Or unreported like.
    “Ahhh so nice. They want our protections with billions for NATO but wanted to spend billions with those they want protection from. @realDonaldTrump said that doesn’t work for the US and got what he wanted.
    It’s so nice to have an actual leader… one with common sense & resolve!”

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave O Keeffe
    Favourite Dave O Keeffe
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 8:46 PM

    @Tom Molloy: you know quotes don’t work unless you say who you’re quoting right? PS given recent developments in Saudi this wouldn’t be the best quote about Trump to use.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cathal Flood
    Favourite Cathal Flood
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 8:57 PM

    @Tom Molloy: ah Tom, Tom, you sad sad yoke, nobody cares about your fixation on don turnip anymore, we all know what your purpose is and it’s so so failing and so low IQ, (see what I did there

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute JustOneScoop
    Favourite JustOneScoop
    Report
    Oct 26th 2018, 7:57 PM

    I promote this. That man is a self serving pig

    9
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      News in 60 seconds