Several foreigners hacked to death in Dhaka cafe attack

• Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina pleads extremists to ‘stop killing in name of religion’ as 20 foreigners were killed and several injured after as many as seven militants stormed an upscale restaurant in capital city
• Six attackers killed while one was arrested alive after army storms restaurant in early morning raid

Militants killed 20 foreigners, many of them hacked to death, after taking them hostage in a Bangladesh cafe overnight, an army spokesman said on Saturday, as Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pleaded her countrymen to stop killing in the name of religion.

“We’ve recovered 20 bodies. Most of them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons,” Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka.

All 20 victims were foreigners, the spokesman said.

An elite police force stormed the cafe to end the siege on Saturday, rescuing 13 people including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans.

Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast.

Gunmen attacked the upscale cafe, popular with expatriates, in the diplomatic area of Dhaka at around 9pm 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 said.

Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, a deputy director at the RAB force, said that 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.

Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said that security forces had tried to negotiate a way out of the crisis.

Pleading extremists to stop killing in the name of religion, Sheikh Hasina said, “Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion.”

“Please stop tarnishing our noble religion… I implore you to come back to the rightful path and uphold the pride of Islam.”

The prime minister, whose government has been unable to stop a growing wave of attacks on foreigners and religious minorities, urged a nationwide effort to combat extremism.

She asked people to set up “anti-terrorism committees” in districts and sub-districts across the mainly Muslim but officially secular country.

The 68-year-old premier said the people behind the attacks were trying to ruin Bangladesh.

“By holding innocent civilians hostage at gunpoint, they want to turn our nation into a failed state,” she said.

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.

The Japanese government said that seven Japanese nationals involved in a hostage attack in Bangladesh have been confirmed dead,

“Embassy officials confirmed that seven Japanese were included in the bodies sent to hospital by the Bangladesh government,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference in Tokyo.

The seven victims included five men and two women, Suga said, adding that it was “extremely regrettable” that the terror attack resulted in the fatalities.

Moreover, nine Italians were killed and a 10th was listed as missing, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said.

The nine fatalities comprised four men and five women, Gentiloni told the press, adding that relatives had been notified.

A tenth Italian was in the restaurant when the attack unfolded but was not among the 20 listed as dead, he said.

Local media said the Italian dead included a 33-year-woman who had been in Bangladesh for 18 months for work, a 52-year-old woman textile executive and a 47-year-old entrepreneur who was the father of three-year-old twins.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had earlier prepared the nation for bad news, saying the country was “like a family which has suffered a painful loss.”

The attackers who believed they were “destroying our values” would not get a drop of encouragement from Italy, he said.

“We are stronger,” Renzi said.

“The terrorists want to rip away the daily fabric of our lives. Our duty is to reply with even greater force, by affirming our values, the values of freedom of which we are proud, and which are stronger than hatred or terror.”

The hostage crisis marked 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.

‘All Pakistanis safe and accounted for’:

Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said all Pakistani diplomats and their families in Dhaka were safe.

He added that Pakistani diplomatic staff has restricted their movement following the attack.

“We have confirmed that there was no Pakistani national among the hostages,” Zakaria added.

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.

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.