Six gunmen were killed and 13 hostages, including three foreigners, were rescued on Saturday during a police operation inside a Dhaka restaurant that came under attack, Indian television channel Times Now reported.
Gunmen attacked the upscale cafe in the diplomatic area of Dhaka late on Friday and had been holding about 20 hostages, including foreigners, before police poured into the building to try to free those stuck inside. At least two police were killed, authorities said
“The operation is over. The situation is completely under control,” army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP.
Dhaka’s diplomatic zone on map.— AFP
Tuhin Mohammad Masud, a commander of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) which stormed the cafe, said there had been a number of casualties, including six hostage-takers.
“We have gunned down six of the terrorists. The main area that they have been occupying has been cleared,” Masud told Times Now.
A police official earlier said five bodies were seen lying in pools of blood, the Associated Press reported.
Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, a deputy director at the RAB force told Reuters one foreigner, probably Japanese, was among those who escaped after more than 100 commandos launched an operation to secure the upmarket cafe.
The militant Islamic State (IS), which has claimed the attacks, posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault on the cafe.
Security personnel are seen near the Holey Artisan restaurant hostage site, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016.— Reuters
Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told Reuters that security forces had tried to negotiate a way out of the crisis.
Police said the gunmen attacked the upscale Holey Artisan restaurant in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, in an assault that began around 9pm local time on Friday.
Italian, Indian hostages
The assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours after the attack but no gunshots had been heard from inside the restaurant since late Friday night, said Bhuiyan.
IS said 24 people had died. Bangladesh police denied that, saying two police officers had been killed and at least 20 people wounded.
Italian and Indian nationals are among the hostages, said a duty officer at RAB’s control room. Italy’s ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told Italian state TV seven Italians were among the hostages.
Bangladeshi soldiers and security personnel sit on top of armored vehicles as they cordon off an area near the sieged restaurant.— AP
“It is a suicide attack. They want to carry out a powerful and bloody operation and there is no room for negotiation,” Palma said.
The hostage crisis marks an escalation from a recent spate of murders claimed by IS and Al Qaeda on liberals, gays, foreigners and religious minorities, and could deal a major blow to the country’s vital $25 billion garment sector.
Last year, several Western retailers temporarily halted visits to Dhaka following the killing of two foreigners.
Sporadic gunfire, chaos
Rizvi, the Bangladesh prime minister’s adviser, said the hostage crisis began when local security guards in the diplomatic enclave noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre.
When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the restaurant, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he added.
An employee who escaped told local television about 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners. The restaurant has a seating capacity of around 25 people. Some 15 to 20 staff were working at the restaurant at the time, the employee said.
A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they met a hail of bullets and grenades.
Television footage showed a number of police being led away from the site with blood on their faces and clothes. Heavily armed officers were seen milling on the street outside.
A resident near the scene of the attack told Reuters he heard sporadic gunfire nearly three hours after the attack began.
“It is chaos out there. The streets are blocked. There are dozens of police commandos,” said Tarique Mir.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Twitter he was closely following the situation in Dhaka, adding he was “anxious for Italians involved” and expressing solidarity with their families.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi abruptly left a ceremony at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday evening to follow the hostage-taking incident, a source at his office said.
The US State Department said all Americans working at the US mission there had been accounted for. A spokesman said in Washington the situation was “very fluid, very live”.
President Barack Obama has been briefed about the attack, the White House said.
Sumon Reza, a kitchen staffer who escaped the attack, told reporters that the attackers were armed with firearms and bombs as they entered the restaurant around 9:20pm (local time) and took customers and staffers hostage at gunpoint.
Jamuna Television, quoting Reza, said the attackers chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) as they launched the attack.
Local TV stations reported that the attackers’ identities were not immediately known.
Nearly two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain in Bangladesh since 2013 by attackers. The frequency of attacks has increased in recent months.
On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. The attacks have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance.
‘All Pakistanis safe and accounted for’
Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria has said that all Pakistani diplomats and their families in Dhaka are safe.
“We are in contact with Pakistani diplomatic staff and they are all safe,” Zakaria said..
He added that Pakistani diplomatic staff has restricted their movement following the attack.
“We have confirmed that there is no Pakistan national among the hostages,” Zakaria added. (AFP)
