Indian, Italians among 20 killed in terror attack in Bangladesh
July 2, 2016, 11:44 am

Security personnel stand guard near a restaurant attacked by gunmen in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2, 2016 [Xinhua]

India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj has said one Indian national was among those killed in the siege when gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Friday.

I am extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka.

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016

Twenty people, mostly foreigners, were killed by their captors after being taken hostage at a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, an army officer said on Saturday. The restaurant is popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. Most of the victims were either Italian or Japanese.

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi confirmed Italians were killed.

“Facing the tragedy of radical Islam, Italy is united and … will not back-track in the face of the madness of those who want to destroy the life we live everyday,” Renzi told a news conference in Rome.

The execution of a top Islamist leader in May this year has heightened tensions in the country that shares a border with India.

Officials had earlier said that six gunmen were killed when security forces stormed the cafe on Saturday morning while two police officers were slain in a firefight that erupted at the beginning of the siege on Friday night.

On Saturday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the gunmen saying they have no faith and belong to no religion.

“These terrorists have no religion. This terror is their religion… I urge the people of Bangladesh to be ever more vigilant against this terror,” Hasina said.

18 people, including atheist bloggers, foreign aid workers and religious minorities, have died in attacks in Bangladesh over the past two years.

Sheikh Hasina, last month, vowed to root out radicals and defeat their attempts to establish Islamic rule in the country.

In June, police said more than 5,000 people, including 85 suspected Islamist radicals, were arrested to stop a wave of attacks on minorities and activists after the hanging of an opposition leader.

Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami Party was hanged at a Dhaka jail in May for genocide and other crimes during the 1971 independence war with Pakistan.

About three million people were killed, the government says, and thousands of women were raped during the 1971 war in which some factions, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, opposed the break from what was then called West Pakistan.

TBP and Agencies