Friends identify three Dhaka cafe attackers, all missing since months

After the SITE Intelligence Group published photos of five gunmen claimed by Islamic state that killed 22 people, including two policemen in Dhaka's Holey Artisan Bakery, friends, former classmates and other acquaintances have started identifying the attackers with the help of social media.

The photos of five IS recruits released by SITE yesterday, show that these militants are young -- around 21 to 27 years old.

So far, friends and former classmates have identified three of these five attackers and reportedly they seem to come from well-off families and probably had private education, reports the Daily Star.

All the three has one thing in common, that they disappeared few months back.

Police headquarters last night released the names of five gunmen with photographs of their corpses.

They were identified as Akash, Bikash, Don, Badhon and Ripon, but no other details of the assailants or their motives were given.

However, the friends who have identified the attackers have identified different names for three of them through the social media.

As per the photo posted by SITE, one assailant has been identified as Nibras Islama. On his Facebook wall, which has now been deactivated, it was found that he went missing from Uttara on February 3.

His friends seeking anonymity confirmed that he was missing for the last few months, reports Daily Star.

After studying at a top private university in Dhaka, he had gone to pursue higher studies in Monash University, Malaysia campus.

He also had a twitter handle and made last post on December 1, 2014.

Another assailant identified as Meer Saameh Mubasheer was class 11 (A-level) student.

He went missing from Gulshan area between February 29 and March 1 when he was on his way to a coaching center "Eminence".

According to Facebook posts his missing was widely circulated during that time.

Meanwhile, one Mahamudur Rahman, who posted on Facebook that Mubasheer went missing on March 1, yesterday posted that he was astonished that on March 1, 2016, he had posted Mubasheer's photo because he was missing from his campus.

But after the photos of assailants were published, he was shocked to see that the guy in the picture and the published photo was the same guy.

The third assailant identified as Rohan Imitiaz, son of Imtiaz Khan Babul, was also missing for the last few months.

According to Babul's Facebook post on June 21, he shared an old photo of him with his son Imitiaz, asking him where he was and also requesting him to come back.

Rohan's father is reported to be a city Awami League leader.

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi American and two Bangladeshis were killed in the terror attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan on Friday night.

Besides 20 people, two senior police officers-Banani Police Station officer-in-charge Salauddin Ahmed Khan and Detective Branch assistant commissioner Robiul Islam were killed while trying to rescue the hostages.