Dhaka hostage crisis: Indian student killed, doctor rescued

Bangladesh security agencies suspect that 18 of the victims were foreigners

An 18-year-old Indian girl was among 20 people hacked to death by suspected Islamic State (IS) militants inside a café in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone on Friday night.

According to government sources, Tarushi Jain was a student at University of California, Berkeley in the United States and was on vacation in Dhaka. She was taken hostage and was killed, along with eight Italians and several Japanese nationals at the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for foreigners in the high security Gulshan diplomatic zone. Tarushi’s father Sanjeev Jain runs a garment business in Bangladesh. Another Indian who was taken hostage, a doctor, was released by the militants as he spoke fluent Bengali.

Reports from Dhaka, quoting eyewitness accounts of those spared, said that heavily armed militants chanting “Allahu Akbar” asked hostages to recite Quranic verses and those who couldn’t were killed.

Dr Satyapal was spared and kept as a hostage, along with some others, as he spoke fluent Bengali and was taken to be a Bangladeshi. Other hostages had been killed by 11 pm on Friday night itself, eyewitnesses said.

While the bodies of the victims were yet to be identified, Bangladesh security agencies suspected 18 of them were foreigners.

“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,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted on Saturday. The Minister said she had spoken to Tarushi’s father Sanjeev Jain and conveyed the government’s deepest condolences. “The country is with them in this hour of grief. We are arranging visa for the family. My officers are on the job,” she said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that “the attack in Dhaka has pained us beyond words.” Modi said he spoke to Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina and “strongly condemned the despicable attack”. In a series of tweets, he said, “India stands firmly with our sisters and brothers of Bangladesh in this hour of grief. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that those who are injured recover quickly.”

Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star quoted Razaul Karim, father of Hasnat Karim, one of the hostages, that the terrorists asked guests at the café to recite Quranic verses. Hasnat had gone to the café to celebrate the birthday of his 13-year-old daughter along with his wife Sharmin Parvin and son Rayan. The family was rescued in the morning. Hasnat’s mother told a Bangladeshi news channel that her daughter-in-law was treated well by the terrorists “as she was wearing a hijab (veil)”, while non-Bangladeshis were tortured and killed.

Bangladesh has seen several attacks on religious minorities and secular bloggers by suspected Islamist militants. A 48-year-old Hindu priest was on Saturday stabbed and critically injured by unknown assailants in Satkhira district. A Hindu priest and a Buddhist leader were brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding IS militants in the past two days while another Hindu man survived a bid on his life.