Ex-classmates identify attackers in Facebook

Risingbd Desk: After SITE Intelligence Group published photos of five gunmen who, the Islamic State (IS) claims, killed at least 20 persons, mostly foreigners, in Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital`s Gulshan, former classmates have started identifying them with the help of the social media.

 

Three of the five attackers have so far been spotted.

 

One of them, Nibras Islam, has been recognised by his former classmates in North South University.

 

An expatriate Bangladeshi has posted on Facebook a photo of one Mir Sabih Mubashsher along with the photo of an attacker.

 

He quoted one of Mubashsher’s classmates in Scholastica School in Dhaka as saying that he had gone missing in March before his A-Level exam.

One Mahbub Rajib posted a family photo of Rohan Imtiaz from the Scholastica, known as a school for the children of the well-to-do in Dhaka.

 

Holey Artisan Bakery, the café in Dhaka’s upscale diplomatic heart of Gulshan, came under attack on Friday evening by gunmen who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ while launching the assault.

 

The assailants killed two policemen, who tried to enter the cafe, after taking a number of hostages.

 

Army commandos stormed the eatery on Saturday morning and rescued 13 hostages, killing six attackers and arresting another.

 

The Army said 20 foreigners were found dead on the premises during the raid.

Terrorism observer group SITE published the photos of the attackers on Saturday night.

 

Police have also released photos of the gunmen killed during the raid.

 

Four persons seemed to be in both sets of photos published by police and IS.

 

It is not clear whether the other photo published by police is of the same person whose photo IS released.

 

Police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque said five of the dead gunmen were listed as militants and police had been looking for them.

 

Police identified them as ‘Akash’, ‘Bikash’, ‘Don’, ‘Bandhon’, and ‘Ripon’.

 

risingbd/Dhaka/July 03, 2016/A K Azad