New Delhi: The morning of Saturday was shaken and drenched in the bloodshed and also the trepidation rose to unseen levels across the globe with the growing attacks by terror groups. The July 1, 2016 was an unforgettable one as it marks a bloody Friday in the history of Bangladesh, which was built on the brotherly love and secularism. All eyes were on the capital city, Dhaka’s 10-hour-long night of terror, which claimed the lives of 22 innocents, mostly foreigners. Today, the country is in mourning with the targeted killings and people are paying their rich tributes wholeheartedly to the people, who were killed by the terrorists.
The Holey Artisan Bakery known for official meetings, gatherings and celebrations was occupied with nearly 20 guests including three friends – Abinta Kabir, Tarishi Jain and Faraaz Hossein, Hasnat Karim and his family and few other non-locals.
It was around 8:45 pm, when an army of seven young men, in their 20s, wearing jeans and T-shirts entered the Cafe, which was born two years ago at the city’s high security Gulshan diplomatic area to give a break to the people from their routines. As soon as the very-well trained terrorists stormed, they opened fire aimlessly at the guests shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and took the hostage.
A few employees of the Cafe, managed to flee the site as they have a good knowledge on the layout of the place and others stuffed themselves into a restroom on the second floor. The incident took spotlight when the people, who were hiding from the armed men, conveyed their horrific situation to their families and police through calls and text messages. Two security officials – Rabiul Karim and Officer-in-charge Salauddin Khan were also killed in explosions, when the officers arrived at the site after hearing the loud noises of gunshots.
Meanwhile, the militants separated the foreigners from locals and Muslims from non-Muslims before killing them one by one. In fact, it is heard that they even offered food and water to the Muslims and also asked the chef to cook a meal so that they can start their day during the Ramadan.
It was around 5 am in the dawn when the ‘Operation Thunderbolt‘ was launched with nearly 100 commandos following the orders of the Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. The skilled commandos entered the Cafe through the fencing and rescued 13 hostages. The security officials killed six militants and managed to capture the seventh one alive. By the end of the painful violence, they found 20 dead bodies on the floor. The injured were immediately shifted the hospital. Nearly 15 police men were also wounded in the shootout. The deceased were identified as nine Italians, one Indian, seven Japanese, one U.S citizen and two Bangladeshis.
Setting a new trend of radicalization, all the hostage takers are from the elite schools and well to-do families. According to an official, they first shot the people and then mutilated them with the help of machetes. The official also added that they had minimum humanity and treated the hostages as cockroaches.
