Bangladeshi authorities reject Isis claim in bakery massacre

Seven militants who killed 20 people at a Dhaka restaurant were Bangladeshis – and authorities had earlier tried to arrest five of them, according to officials who denied claims by Islamic State of responsibility for the attack.

The gunmen stormed the upmarket restaurant in the diplomatic zone late on Friday and killed their mostly non-Muslim hostages, including nine Italians, seven Japanese and an American.

The victims also included at least three Bangladeshis or people of Bangladeshi descent.

Claiming responsibility, Islamic State warned citizens of “crusader countries” in a statement that they would not be safe “as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims”.

It also posted pictures of five grinning fighters in front of a black flag who it said were involved in the attack, according to the Site monitoring website.

However, the Bangladeshi home minister told Reuters late on Saturday that neither Islamic State, also known as Isis, nor al-Qaeda were involved.

Asaduzzaman Khan reiterated the government statement that home-grown militants were responsible for a spate of killings in the country over the past 18 months, including the latest one.

“This was done by JMB,” Mr Khan said, referring to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which claims to represent Islamic State in Bangladesh but has no proven links to it.

Late yesterday in Bangladesh, hundreds of men, women and children held a candlelight vigil near Dhaka’s Shaheed Minar (Martyr’s Monument) to pay respect to those who died.

Questioned delay

Security experts have questioned the delay in launching the offensive. More than 100 commandos stormed the restaurant nearly 10 hours after the siege began.

National police chief Shahidul Hoque said all the gunmen were Bangladeshis. “Five of them were listed as militants and law enforcers made several drives to arrest them,” he said.

Whoever was responsible, the attack marked a major escalation in violence by militants demanding Islamic rule in Bangladesh, whose 160 million people are mostly Muslim.

Gunmen singled out foreigners as soon as they stormed through the doors of the restaurant. They ordered all Bangladeshis to stand up before the killing began, a source briefed on the investigation said.

The Bangladeshis were later told to close their eyes and recite verses from the Koran. One militant cursed a Bangladeshi for eating with non-Muslims during Ramadan, the source said.

The Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency claimed in a report on Saturday that the militants identified and released Muslim patrons from the restaurant, Site said.

The militants hacked most of their victims with machetes, leaving their bleeding bodies on the floor.

12-hour standoff

A standoff of nearly 12 hours with security forces ended when commandos stormed the building, killing six of the militants and capturing a seventh after fruitless attempts at negotiation, authorities said. They recovered explosives and sharp weapons from the scene.

The home minister said yesterday that the militants had not made any demands.

Up until Friday’s attack, authorities had claimed that no operational links existed between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks.

– (Reuters)