Terrorists held hostages at a bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Friday, resulting in a standoff that carried into Saturday.
The gunmen attacked Holey Artisan Bakery on Friday evening, killing two police officers and injuring at least 40 people. ISIS claimed responsibility for the terror attack as communicated by Amaq, an ISIS media branch. This is the latest terror attack Bangladesh has experienced.
Sources at the scene reported that police traded fire with the gunmen as the gunmen threw explosives at the officers. The attackers took café customers hostage, Sumon Reza, café worker, told CNN. He escaped as six to eight gunmen entered the bakery. About 20 people were inside the restaurant.
Two police officers died after responding to the attack. Detective Police Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam stated that 40 people were wounded by shrapnel or by explosives.
A U.S. official knowledgeable on intelligence thinking concluded that based on past attacks, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent is more likely than ISIS to have orchestrated the attack. The official’s preliminary analysis is based on evidence that all AQIS attacks in Bangladesh in the past few months have been in Dhaka.
Ataur Rahman, in his office near the café, heard gunshots and went in the street. He said that people were running for cover and that the gunmen were shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
“We are trying to resolve this issue peacefully,” Benzir Ahmed, director general of the Rapit Action Battalion of Bangladesh Police, said to reporters.