Dhaka: A group of hostage-takers murdered 20 foreigners in Bangladesh, hacking many of their victims to death, before six of the attackers were gunned down at the end of a siege Saturday at an upmarket restaurant.
As Daesh claimed responsibility for the carnage at the start of the Eid holiday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she was determined to eradicate militancy in the mainly Muslim nation.
Survivors told of how the hostage-takers separated locals from the foreigners who were eating side-by-side before embarking on a killing spree which was brought to an end 11 hours later in a fierce gunbattle.
Although there was no exact breakdown of the casualties, the army said most of the slain civilians were either Italian or Japanese. Most had been slaughtered with sharpened weapons.
Two police officers were also killed at the start of the siege while a total of six attackers were shot dead at the finale when elite commandos stormed the cafe.
One of the assailants was captured alive and arrested, the army said.
Hasina’s government has previously blamed a string of deadly attacks, targeting religious minorities and foreigners, on her domestic opponents but the incident will heighten fears that IS’s reach is spreading.
“It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people?” said Hasina in a televised address.
The attack, by far the deadliest of a recent wave of killings claimed by IS or a local Al Qaida offshoot, was carried out in a neighbourhood which is home to the country’s elite and houses many of the major embassies.
Announcing the end of the siege, officials said that 13 hostages had been rescued after members of an elite force took control of the cafe and shot dead six of the gunmen.
But while Hasina called the outcome a “success”, the security forces later revealed that 20 of those taken captive were killed.
“Most them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons,” an army spokesman, Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, told reporters.
Another senior army officer then confirmed that all 20 were foreigners.
“All 20 of the hostages who were killed were foreigners... Most of them were Italian or Japanese,” Lieutenant Shahab Uddin told AFP without giving an exact breakdown.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi prepared Italians for “a painful loss” as local media said 11 had been taken hostage, only one of whom had escaped.
A Japanese government official said its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had told Hasina by phone that several Japanese nationals may have been inside, as Tokyo dispatched Seiji Kihara, vice foreign minister, to Dhaka to gather information.
And India confirmed that one of its nationals, a 19-year-old female student at the University of California, Berkeley, was among the dead.
Foreigners and Bangladeshis could be seen standing outside the upmarket Holey Artisan Bakery cafe after the siege, still awaiting news on their loved ones inside.
Witnesses recounted how a massive gunfight erupted on Saturday morning as more than 100 commandos launched the rescue operation, nearly 11 hours after the siege began shortly before 9.30 pm.
Eight hostages including a foreigner were rescued in the first few minutes of the operation. TV footage showed ambulances rushing some of those who had been freed to a military hospital.
“It was a horrendous night,” said Diego Rossini, an Argentine chef who managed to escape through a terrace during the siege.
“They (the hostage-takers) had automatic weapons and bombs,” he said on Argentinian TV as he described how he eventually managed to escape into the next-door building despite coming under fire.
“I felt bullets pass so close to me, I felt fear like I’ve never felt in my life.”
The father of one of the survivors was told by his son how the hostage-takers separated the locals from foreigners.
“They (the foreigners) were taken to the upper floor and the Bangladeshis were kept around a table,” Rezaul Karim told AFP.
The area around the restaurant was cordoned off after the militants launched their attack and then became involved in a fierce firefight.
Police said two officers, including the head of the local police station, were killed. Hasina said 30 officers were injured.
The attack 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 early Saturday in the southwest.
The government and police blame homegrown militants for the killings, saying they are part of a plot to destabilise the country.
Bangladesh’s main Islamist party has been banned from contesting polls and most of its leaders have been arrested or else executed after recent trials over their role in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Hasina called on all Bangladeshis to “resist these terrorists”.
“My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy,” she added.
Last month authorities launched a crackdown on local jihadists, arresting more than 11,000 people, under pressure to act on the spate of killings.
But critics allege the arrests were arbitrary or designed to silence political opponents.
