Bangladeshi police said on Tuesday security forces may have shot dead a hostage by mistake during a siege of a Dhaka cafe on the weekend, believing he was one of the attackers.
Saiful Islam, a senior police official in Dhaka, said Saiful Islam Chowkidar, a pizza maker at the Holey Artisan restaurant, was among six men who were killed by the police on Saturday when officers stormed the eatery to end a 12-hour siege.
Gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone late on Friday and killed 20 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, in an assault claimed by the Islamic State.
It was one of the deadliest militant attacks in Bangladesh, where Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year. The government has dismissed those claims, as it did the Islamic State claim of responsibility for Friday’s attack.
Police believe that Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed domestic group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, played a significant role in organising the band of privileged, educated young men who carried out the attack.
{{/usCountry}}Police believe that Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed domestic group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, played a significant role in organising the band of privileged, educated young men who carried out the attack.
{{/usCountry}}Police earlier said they killed six of the attackers when they regained control of the restaurant, 12 hours after the attack began. Two other suspects are in hospital.
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