Police initiate case over deadly terror attack on Dhaka cafe

Police have started a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act accusing a number of people over the terror attack on a cafe in Dhaka that left at least 22 people, including two police officers, dead.

The charges were filed at Gulshan Police Station on Monday midnight, Inspector Md Salauddin Mia told bdnews24.com.

He said, “Five persons have been named in the case along with many unidentified persons.”

According to police, the five terrorists who were killed by the army commandos in their bid to rescue hostages have also been accused in the case.

On Friday night, Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen restaurant in Gulshan-2 came under attack by gunmen who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’.

They had taken at least 33 hostages and killed the police officers who had tried to end the siege.

Commandos finally stormed the eatery, which was popular among foreigners, the next morning after the terrorists had refused to engage in negotiations and rescued 13 hostages.

The army told the media 20 hostages had been found slaughtered on the premises. They included nine from Italy, seven from Japan, an Indian citizen and three Bangladeshis, one of whom was a US citizen as well.

The army had said that six militants had been killed and another caught alive during the assault.

IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque later said that they had been looking for five of the slain militants.
 
Police on Saturday night released the photos of the five militants and identified them as  ‘Akash’, ‘Bikash’, ‘Don’, ‘Bandhon’ and ‘Ripon’.
 
But, the Islamic State, claiming responsibility, reportedly called the five gunmen in photos they released hours after the attack as Abu Umayer, Abu Salma, Abu Rahiq, Abu Muslim, and Abu Muharib.
 
Regarding the differences between names, the police chief had cited the trend among militants to use aliases.
 
Afterwards, Bogra police identified two of the terrorists as Md Khairuzzaman of Shahjahanpur Upazila and Shafikul Islam Ujjal of Dhunat Upazila, from the photos released in Dhaka.
 
Both of them were madrasa students.
 
Three other gunmen have also been identified as Nibras Islam, Rohan Bin Imtiaz and Mir Sabih Mubashir, all from well-to-do families, after their former classmates from Dhaka’s top English medium schools, seeing the SITE photos, began posting their true identities on Facebook.
 
However, one of the five photos released by police is of Holey Artisan Bakery chef Saiful Islam Chowkider, his family claims.
 
Police have not offered an explanation why the name and photo of the other attacker were not made public.

On Monday, the second day of the two-day national mourning, Bangladesh paid tribute to the victims of the terror attack through a state ceremony.
 
Middle East-based IS has been reportedly claiming credit for a number of murders in Bangladesh in the past one and a half years, but police rejected all of them.
 
After it claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, the first hostage crisis Bangladesh has seen, IGP Hoque had said the killers were members of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
 
Earlier on Monday, he also said two men were detained for their suspected link with the attack, but did not disclose their identities.
 
India and the US have offered assistance to the government in the investigation and in dealing with terror.