Videos of commando operation to free Bangladesh cafe hostages go viral on social media

Five videos of the dramatic commando counterstrike to take out the gunmen who took hostages and murdered 20 people at a cafe in Dhaka and moments before the raid have gone viral on the social media.

A South Korean citizen by the name of DK Hwang shared the videos first on his Facebook profile between 7:26am and 8:18am on Saturday. Every video has been shared thousands of times on the social networking site since then.

According to the ISPR, ‘Operation Thunderbolt’ in the restaurant on Road No. 79 near Gulshan-2 began at 7:40am Saturday, and ended at 8:30am.

At a media briefing, an army spokesperson said the commandos neutralised the terrorists and took total control of the cafe, popular with foreigners living in Bangladesh, within 12 to 13 minutes.

Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen restaurant came under attack around 8:45pm on Friday by gunmen who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ while launching the assault.

The assailants killed two police officers, who had tried to enter the cafe to break the siege, and later took at least 33 people as hostages, including foreign nationals.

After 12 hours, army commandos stormed the eatery and rescued 13 hostages, killing six attackers and arresting another. The army said 20 hostages were found dead on the premises during the raid, all possibly slaughtered late on Friday.

It has been confirmed that the hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese and an Indian. Three Bangladeshis were also among the dead and one of them was a US citizen.

According to information on Facebook, South Korean Hwang lives in Los Angeles in the US.

The videos were shot from a window of a building adjacent to the cafe. A person was heard describing the time and events in Korean in the footages while English subtitles could be seen.

By Sunday afternoon, the videos were removed from Hwang’s Facebook profile. But same videos were shared on YouTube by several others.

In one of the videos Hwang posted at 7:46am Saturday, a little before two armoured personnel carriers (APCs) of the army tore down the wall of the cafe, several people including women and children were seen being escorted out of the restaurant.

Around the same time, a RAB official outside had told reporters of rescuing five persons.

No comments were available from the ISPR regarding Hwang’s videos.