Bangladesh attack: Attacker and "hostage" held after assault on Dhaka"s Holey Cafe

Media captionA police officer injured in the shooting says he was fired on as he went to help an injured man

Two people have been detained over an attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital that left 20 hostages and two officers dead on Friday, police say.

One of the gunmen was captured. Another man, initially regarded as one of the rescued hostages, is also being held.

It has also emerged that one of the dead gunmen was the son of a governing party politician.

The so-called Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attack in Dhaka, but the government has denied this.

The man previously believed to be a hostage was detained after footage of the assault filmed by eyewitnesses from nearby buildings showed he could be linked to the attackers, police said.

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Rohan Ibne Imtiaz, son of Awami League politician Imtiaz Khan, had been reported missing by his parents after he disappeared in December.

They recognised him from photographs of the attackers published in local media.

I am stunned, dumbfounded" – a father"s struggle to understand

Image copyright AFP/Getty

The father of one of the attackers has told the BBC of his shock at discovering his son was one of the attackers.

"I am stunned to learn this," said Imtiaz Khan, a leader of the Awami League"s Dhaka chapter and deputy secretary-general of the Bangladesh Olympic Committee.

"My son used to pray five times a day from a young age. There is a mosque just 25 feet from our home. He started going to prayers with his grandfather. But we never imagined this. There was nothing at home, no books or anything to indicate he was leaning that way.

""The shock and suddenness of the event has left me speechless. I am so ashamed and sorry."

Rohan disappeared from the family home in December. "When I was searching for my son, I found that many other boys were missing – well-educated boys from good educated families, children of professionals, government officers. I used to share my sorrows with them," Mr Khan said.

"We don"t know how this is happening. The only thing I can think about is the internet. I can only guess."

Bangladeshi officials have named five of the men and said they belonged to a local banned militant group.

"They are members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB)," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said. "They have no connections with the Islamic State."

However, IS earlier released photographs of the alleged attackers posing in front of a black IS flag.

Image copyright AFP/Getty

Image caption A memorial service for the victims has been held

Image copyright AP

Image caption Local residents also laid wreaths at the memorial service

Mr Khan said the men had made no demands during the attack. He said three of the gunmen were under 22 and had been missing for six months.

They are said to belong to affluent families and had studied in elite private schools and universities, not in Islamic seminaries or madrassas where many Islamist militant groups are thought to draw recruits.

Police chief Shahidul Hoque made some of the men"s first names public: Akash, Bikash, Don, Bandhon and Ripon

Six attackers were killed in the raid on the Holey Artisan cafe in the Gulshan neighbourhood.

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one US citizen and an Indian were among the dead. One Italian is unaccounted for.

The JMB group has been blamed for a wave of small-scale terrorism attacks in Bangladesh over the past year, including the killings of secular bloggers, atheists and an LGBT rights campaigner.

Its top two leaders were arrested and executed in 2008.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has consistently denied that IS has made inroads in to Bangladesh.

Who are the victims?

Nine Italians named by the Italian foreign ministry as: Cristian Rossi; Marco Tondat; Nadia Benedetti; Adele Puglisi; Simona Monti; Claudia Maria D"Antona; Vincenzo D"Allestro; Maria Rivoli and Claudio Cappelli

Seven Japanese Five men and two women, four of whose names have been released by Japanese officials: Koyo Ogasawara, Makoto Okamura, Yuko Sakai and Rui Shimodaira

Four Bangladeshis Two were named in national media as Faraaz Ayaaz Hossai, a student at Emory University in the US, and Ishrat Akhond – the other two were policemen

US citizen Abinta Kabir, also a student at Emory University

One Indian Tarishi Jain, 18, who was a student at the University of California, Berkeley

More about the victims

Original Article

Bangladesh attack: Attacker and "hostage" held after assault on Dhaka"s Holey Cafe
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