The dreadful night has changed the lives of many people as it plunged the entire nation into shock and disbelief.
Published : 27 Nov 2019, 12:05 PM
On July 1, 2016, the grisly terror attack on Holey Artisan café in Gulshan left 22 people dead including 17 foreign nationals. The hostage crisis ended with bloodshed after 12 hours in a commando operation.
It was a week prior to the Eid-ul-Fitr. The diplomatic zone in Gulshan was more or less deserted on a Friday evening. All of a sudden, the terrorists opened fire at 8:45pm at Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan road No. 79, a popular hangout place for the foreigners.
A team of patrol police led by SI Ripon Kumar Das arrived at the scene within five minutes. They found a group of terrorists firing indiscriminately. They had detonated bombs inside the café while shouting Allahu Akber. The people inside, horrified, were trying to flee the scene.
At one point, a gunfight ensued between the police and the militants. SI Farook Hossain, Constable Pradeep Chandra Das and Alamagir Hossain along with a pedestrian Razzak were injured. They were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and police reinforcements were deployed at the scene.
A bigger force of the law-enforcement surrounded the building at road no. 79, realising the gravity of the crisis. Roads were closed too.
Police station chiefs from the Gulshan division appeared at the place of occurrence with their forces at the call of Deputy Commissioner SM Mostak Ahmed. Then the Dhaka Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, RAB Director General Benazir Ahmed, Counter Terrorism Unit Chief Monirul Islam also arrived.
At about 10pm, police moved to rescue the hostages inside Holey Artisan Bakery and all hell broke loose. The attackers opened fire and charged grenades at the police. At least 30 policemen were injured at the time.
Banani OC Md Salauddin was rushed to the United Hospital in a critically injured state only to be declared dead by the doctors there. Later, Detective Branch Assistant Commissioner Rabiul Islam, too, was pronounced dead.
People were yet to comprehend the severity of the unfolding situation and a curious crowd massed at the end of road No. 79 where the police had set up a barricade. The media arrived and some of the TV stations began live telecast.
The assailants swooped on the café carrying pistols, sub-machine guns and sharp weapons, Holey Artisan Bakery Supervisor Sumon Reza said in a live telecast. There were 20 guests inside with most of them being foreigners, he said.
Sumon along with a few other café staff bolted to the roof and fled the two-storey building by jumping out from there. Those who were still inside either ignored or rejected calls made by their colleagues, according to Sumon.
RAB chief Benazir rushed to the spot after the blasts and told the media that some armed intruders had entered the eatery. Some waiters have managed to come out but other locals and foreigners were still trapped inside, he had said adding the law-enforcing agencies were trying to end the crisis peacefully.
In a bid to stop panic and rumours, he urged TV journalists to stop beaming live from Gulshan. The TV crew then stopped live telecast from the road.
The news of terrorists taking hostages had spread globally by then and major media outlets including the BBC and CNN began live coverage on the Gulshan attack.
Amaq, the media of the Middle East-based militant outfit Islamic State, had published the photographs of five young men as the attackers at the Holey Artisan Bakery, SITE Intelligence Group reported around 12 midnight.
The intensity of firing and bombing reduced after midnight but tension flared up. Around 1am, preparations for a commando attack were evident when a Navy commando team and an Army team arrived at the scene.
Police brought a number of armoured vehicles to the intersection of road no. 79. Ambulances, fire trucks and power department's cars were brought too.
Journalists and ordinary people were moved to safety.
Within an hour after they stormed the café, the terrorists had killed 20 people inside Holey Artisan Bakery with guns and sharp weapons. Among the victims, nine were Italian nationals, seven Japanese and another Indian. The rest were Bangladeshi nationals.
IS media Amaq published the gory pictures of the massacre inside the café in the later part of the night.
The international media carried the news of IS claiming the responsibility for the attack. The terrorists took a phone from a foreign national and contacted their teammates outside, investigations later revealed. They disseminated the photos of dead bodies lying in a pool of blood.
Then RAB chief Benazir, police chief AKM Shahidul Haque and other high ups from the security agencies had hours of meeting with the policymakers in the government to decide on launching the blitz to free the hostages.
They returned from the meeting and around 5am ordered the plainclothesmen to wear official vests.
The police and RAB members then cordoned the entire neighbourhood of Holey Artisan Bakery.
The commando operation by the army codenamed 'Operation Thunderbolt' began at 7:40am. Paracommandoes with armoured vehicles took part in it.
Initially, gunshots and explosions were heard for sometimes from afar. At one point, the armoured personnel carriers entered the premises after crushing the wall of the café. The pizza corner outside the compound collapsed too. Two cars parked at Lake View Clinic, the establishment next to Holey Artisan Bakery, were smashed.
The fire fighters entered the building with extinguishers right after the operation ended, and were followed by doctors. The hostages who were alive and rescued came out of the café.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called the Gulshan café disaster a terrorist attack and said 13 hostages were rescued, including women and children, during an event on July 2.
The military’s media wing, the Inter Services Public Relations, shared the details of the operation in a press briefing saying the attackers had killed 20 people overnight. Two police officials were killed, it said adding that five terrorists and a member of the café staff were killed during the commando operation in the morning.
On July 2, the prime minister addressed the nation and announced two days of national mourning for the slain victims. Hasina promised to eliminate terrorism and make Bangladesh a peaceful country.