Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Saturday that her government was determined to “root out terrorism and militancy” from the country.
“It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people?” said Ms. Hasina in a televised address, after a 10-hour >siege of an upmarket café in Dhaka that left 20 people dead was brought to an end by a commando operation.
The Prime Minister also thanked all security personnel involved in the “successful” raid at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka’s high-security diplomatic enclave.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
The >siege began at 8:45 pm on Friday when seven gunmen stormed into the Holey Artisan Bakery. They shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ on their way in and started firing blanks, according to the police and restaurant’s supervisor Sumon Reza, who managed to escape.
No confirmation on IS Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department has said it “cannot yet confirm” whether the IS was behind the siege. “We have seen ISIL claims of responsibility, but cannot yet confirm and are assessing the information available to us,” U.S. Department of State Spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement, referring to another acronym for the group.
The embassy further said it’s working with the local authorities “to determine if any U.S. citizens and locally-employed staff were affected”.
Italy’s ambassador to Bangladesh, Mario Palma, told the Italian state TV that seven Italians were among the hostages.
Series of killings The attack follows a series of killings targeting religious minorities, foreigners, secularists and liberal activists. Earlier on Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death in western Bangladesh and a >Hindu priest was stabbed and critically wounded early on Saturday in the southwest of the country.
The café attack is by far the deadliest of the recent wave of killings claimed by the IS or a local Al-Qaeda offshoot. But the government of Ms. Hasina has always rejected IS or Qaeda presence in the country and has blamed local groups for jihadist violence. Last month authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on local jihadist groups, arresting more than 11,000 people, under pressure to act on the spate of killings.
( With inputs from AFP )
