• published: 01 Jul 2016
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Dhaka attack: gunmen take hostages at restaurant Authorities trying to ensure hostages’ safety after eight to nine gunmen attacked Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in diplomatic quarter of Bangladeshi capital . Gunmen have attacked a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital and taken an unknown number of people hostage, including foreigners, the special police force chief said late Friday. Benjir Ahmed told reporters police were trying to ensure the hostages’ safety in a peaceful manner. Eight to nine gunmen had attacked the restaurant in the Gulshan area of the capital, he said. Two police officials were killed, 27 police personnel and at least one civilian were injured in the attack, confirmed Binoy Krishna Bala, deputy inspector general of police. Late on Friday night, the terrorist group Islamic State claimed credit for the attack in a statement on its self-styled news agency, saying that at least 20 people had been killed. Inside Bangladesh’s killing fields: bloggers and outsiders targeted by fanatics Read more Local media reported that gunmen had entered the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe and opened fire on at around 9.20pm on Friday. They also reported as many as 20 people taken hostage, and that as many as 40 people in all were injured. A police constable named Kamruzzaman later told the Guardian that the gunman threw explosives from the second floor of the two-storey restaurant. “We reached the spot of attack within seven minutes of the incident taking place,” he said. “They opened fire from there, we fired back.” “We tried to rescue a civilian but they shot him down. He was lying by the lake side close to the restaurant,” Kamruzzaman added. “We didn’t know they had grenades in possession.” A local police station chief, Mohammed Salahuddin, was killed in the gunfight along with one other officer, confirmed Ashraful Karim, the assistant police commissioner and Salahuddin’s immediate superior. A kitchen staff worker at the restaurant who escaped the attack told Jamuna Television that the gunmen chanted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) as they burst into the restaurant. A large contingency of police and security guards cordoned off the area, trading gunfire with the attackers, but police said they hoped to negotiate with the gunmen. Ahmed, chief of the Rapid Action Battalion, said: “We believe we can resolve this peacefully. “Some derailed youths have entered the restaurant and launched the attack. We have talked to some of the people who fled the restaurant after the attack,” Ahmed said. “We are trying to talk to the attackers, we want to listen to them about what they want.” Ahmed would not say how many people were trapped inside but said officers’ “first priority” was to save the hostages. Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of police said that authorities had asked the media to stop all live broadcasts of the standoff. By about2am local time, the Special Warfare Diving and Salvage Command, a special commando force of Bangladeshi navy had reached the restaurant. “We are going to provide support” to the force running the operation, a navy official told the Guardian. Analysis Bangladesh attack: the predictable result of unchecked violence Bangladesh has seen a rising tide of violence against both foreigners and locals deemed enemies of extremist Islam over the past year, and done little to quell it Read more Bangladesh has seen a series of attacks, mostly using machetes, targeting bloggers, atheists and religious minorities. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in the south-west of the country in the latest attack blamed on radical Islamists, police said. At least three assailants on a motorbike fled the scene after hacking Shyamonando Das with sharp weapons, local police chief Hasan Hafizur Rahman said. The attack happened in Jhenaidah district, 210km (120 miles) south-west of Dhaka, as the victim was plucking flowers for his morning prayers near the temple, Rahman said. The worker died on the spot. The US state department said it was too early to say who was involved or what motivation the gunmen might have, but confirmed that all Americans working at the US mission were accounted for. Spokesman John Kirby called it a “very fluid, very live situation”. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/dhaka-bangladesh-restaurant-attack-hostages