Dhaka attacks: Highly-educated terrorists, red alerts & funerals, Bangladesh pays a heavy price

Friends and relatives identify terrorists based on pictures released online; Jain to be flown in today

Days after the deadly attack on a café in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone, which killed 20 people and all the attackers, tragic details keep emerging from the site. 

Among the dead at the Holey Artisan restaurant were three students. Reports also indicate Tarishi Jain, the only Indian among the dead, may have been tortured before being hacked to death. Apart from them, seven Japanese citizens, nine Italians and an American died in the attacks.   

As a result, a high alert has been issued on the Indo-Bangla border in five states of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Mizoram and Meghalaya. 

Meanwhile, the United States has offered its assistance to the government in Bangladesh for the probe. US Secretary of State, earlier in the day, called on PM Sheikh Hasina and offered her assistance from the FBI to carry out a probe. 

The three students, Faraaz Hossain, Abinta Kabir and Jain, friends from the same school, had gone to meet a fourth one, Miraaj al-Haque, at the eating joint when the attack took place. Haque was late to arrive at the restaurant and could not get in as the attacks had already begun. 

Tarishi Jain was hacked to death by militants in terror attack at the Dhaka restaurant. Photo: Facebook

Reports indicate that Jain may have been tortured before being brutally killed. It was reported that the killers asked hostages to recite verses from Quran, failing which they were killed. Jain’s father Sanjeev had moved to Bangladesh two decades ago where he had a business. Both his kids were born and raised there. Tarishi is set to be flown in to India today. 

Faraaz Hossain (Photo: Facebook)

Even as the hostage situation worsened, Hossain was offered an option to leave the premises and let his friends remain with them. An eye-witness account states that he chose to stay back with his friends. Hossain was son of Muhammad Waquer Bin Hossain and Simeen Hossain, MD of Eskayef Pharma, Transcom Consumer Products and  

Transcom Distribution. His grandfather is also the owner of media house Prothom Alo and The Daily Star.

Based out of Miami, Kabir was also a sophomore at Emory’s Oxford College — the University’s two-year liberal arts school. “I was able to reach Abinta’s mother, who is in unspeakable pain. Please, as you are inclined, direct your kindest thoughts and sincerest prayers in her behalf and that of her family,” the school’s president said.

Abinta Kabir (Photo: Facebook)

Friends and kin have identified three out of the six attackers that were killed. While the cops did not release their identities, their pictures circulating on social media led to their identification. 

One assailant was identified as Nibras Islam had studied at a top private university in Dhaka and had gone to pursue higher studies in Monash University’s Malaysia campus. It was confirmed by his friends that he had gone missing for the last few months, according to a Daily Star report. 

Nibras Islam. Photo: SITE Intelligence Group

Meer Saameh Mubasheer was a Class-11 student who had gone missing between February 29 and March 1. The incident is said to have occurred when he was on his way to a coaching center named Eminence. 

Meer Saameh Mubasheer. Photo: SITE Intelligence Group

Rohan Imtiaz. Photo: SITE Intelligence Group

The third attacker to have been identified is Rohan Imtiaz. He was also missing for the last few months. His father, Imtiaz Khan Babul, is believed to be a leader of Awami League.