“Let me clear it again, there are no ISIS or al-Qaeda presence or existence in Bangladesh...the hostage-takers were all home-grown terrorists not members of ISIS or any other international Islamist outfits,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said on Sunday.
“We know them (hostage-takers) along with their ancestors, they all grew here in Bangladesh...they belong to home-grown outfits like JMB (Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh),” he said.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the hostages, mostly foreigners, and two police officers during an 11-hour siege that ended on Saturday after the army stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.
Hossain Toufique Imam, the political advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said that the way in which the hostages were killed with machetes suggests the role of a local terrorist group, the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.
“Pakistan’s ISI and Jamaat connection is well known...they want to derail the current government,” Imam told a TV channel. The arrested terrorist chickened out at the last minute and he holds the key to crucial details, he said.
Hostages who were killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the people who were killed.
Most of those killed were found with their throats slit.
Among those rescued were Indian, Sri Lankan and Japanese nationals, media reports said. Around 30 people were injured. A police source was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune that all the attackers were Bangladeshi nationals aged between 20 and 28. Police said the attackers were well-educated and most came from rich families.
“All of them were students and communicated at the crime scene in both Bengali and English,” the police source said. The government has consistently ruled out the presence of the dreaded terror group in the Muslim-majority nation though experts have been maintaining that series of brutal attacks on minorities and secular activists had the hallmarks of ISIS group.
Meanwhile, police have released the photos of the six gunmen killed during the raid by commandos. A seventh was arrested and is being interrogated by Bangladeshi intelligence officers. Police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque said five of the dead gunmen were listed as militants and police had been looking for them. Police identified them as Akash, Bikash, Don, Bandhon, and Ripon.
Bangladeshi media reports said that after US-based SITE Intelligence Group published photos of five gunmen holding assault rifles who, the Islamic State claims, killed the hostages, former classmates have started identifying by posting their old pictures on social media.
Warning “crusader countries” that their citizens would not be safe “as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims”, the ISIS also posted pictures of four fighters, who it said were involved in the attack, smiling in front of a black flag of the outfit.
According to the reports, three of the five attackers have so far been identified by their friends.
The gunmen did a background check on religion of the captives by asking them to recite Quranic verses and tortured those who could not do so.
Announcing a two-day state mourning for those killed in the worst terror attack in the country, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina on Sunday vowed to trace the “roots” of the culprits who supplied weapons and explosives to the terrorists who killed 20 people, mostly foreigners, in a barbaric attack on a cafe here. She asked all, including the general public, to get united to resist a “handful of terrorists”. The national flag was lowered at half mast as the country began two-day mourning period.