{UAH} Gunmen take hostages in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka

For the past three months, I have been posting almost daily of brutal
murders being carried out by Islamic militants on religious
minorities, secularists, gays, athiests and intellectuals. Bangla Desh
is a 90% Muslim country but it seems Islamic fundamentalists are
determined to forcefully convert of annihilate the small minority that
does not ascribe to the muslim faith.

I have a connection with Bangla Desh in that I covered the country as
a Researcher when I worked for various international human rights
organisations, including Amnesty International, and also because I
have an adopted there, an orphan girl, whom I have been caribg for for
the past 17 years and is now at University. I have visited Bangla Desh
several times, the last to attend the matriculation of my adopted
daughter

Bangla Desh is a vry beautiful country, with very rich culture,
traditons and heritage, but this is now beibg seriously challnged by
the rise of Islamic fundmentalism. In the late 1980's it was a very
tolerant country, totally different from other Arab MUslim countries I
have visited. The vibrancy of the culture, the traditional music,
extravagant and captivating dancing, and the entire gaiety of life-
all these are now being challenged by an austere Arab culture
introduced through the medium of Islam, which essentially frowns on
any exprssion of happiness, joy or happinness

The colourful and flower bedecked long saris and dresses that used to
flow on the elegant bodies of women slits at the sides which showed
or allowed seductive sights of the breasts are no more. The last time
I visited Dhaka, many women are dressed in soul-less bougas, covering
the whole of their bodies, with only two tiny slits on the head to
allow them to see. The women look like walking granaries and there is
no doubt that Bangal Deshi women, in a world where women are becoming
more liberated, are becoming more trapped in a prison imposed by Arab
culture in the name of religion.

Bangal Desh used to be a secular country. Political Islam committed
political suicide in the 1970s when it opposed the indpedence of
Bangla Desh, fighting instead for Bangla Desh to remain part of
Pakistan because they argued it uniting muslims in one country was
more important than national independence. Most Bangal Deshis
diasgreed with pilitical Islam and in the civil war that ensued,
nealry one million innocent people were massacred by the Ilsamist.
After their defeat, the Islamist became pariahs in Bangla Desh
politics, as no body would want any association with them. Islamist
were viewed by most Bangla Deshis as killers and murderers.

But in the last few decades, the Islamist have been making a comeback
in bangla Deshi politics, as evidenced by the daily murders. Many
local groups have declared their allegiance or association with ISIL
and Al Qaeda. This lates attack on the tourist cafe is probably their
latest decalartion that they are back and are readu to take the battle
back to the nationalists who defeated them in 1971. Bangla Desh, like
Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria faces tough times ahead.

Bobby .

Gunmen take hostages in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka

2 July 2016


Gunmen have stormed a popular cafe in the diplomatic area of the
Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, taking a number of hostages, officials
say.

Several foreigners are among those being held by eight or nine armed
men in the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in the city's Gulshan district,
they add.

Two police officers have been killed in a gun battle, a spokesman
said, and about 30 others injured.

So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it carried out the attack.

A statement on the group's self-styled news agency Amaq said militants
had attacked a restaurant "frequented by foreigners". It said that
more than 20 people "of different nationalities" had been killed but
this has not been confirmed.

■In pictures: Dhaka hostage crisis
Security forces say they are trying to negotiate the hostages' release.

Initial reports said that as many as 20 foreigners were among those
taken captive.

Seven Italian nationals are believed to be in the cafe, the Italian
ambassador in Dhaka, Mario Palma, was later quoted as saying by
Italian media.

A Japanese government spokesman said Tokyo was investigating reports
that some of its citizens were among the hostages.

Passers-by helped to carry the injured away from the Holey Artisan Bakery
"We want to resolve this peacefully. We are trying to talk to the
attackers," said Benazir Ahmed, chief of the Rapid Action Battalion,
Bangladesh's elite police force.

"Our first priority is to save the lives of the people trapped inside."

Police said the gunmen burst into the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe at
about 21:20 (13:20 GMT) and opened fire.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Analysis: Anbarasan Ethirajan, former BBC Bangladesh correspondent
This is probably the first time ever foreigners have been taken
hostages in Bangladesh.

Though there have been a number of killings focusing on academics,
activists and member of religious minorities, attacks on foreigners
are rare.

The timing is important. Bangladesh has been gearing up for the Muslim
religious festival of Eid, and most people have started going to their
homes in villages and towns across the country for a week-long holiday
period.

The government has always denied the presence of Islamic State
militant group in Bangladesh.

So far the militants have targeted individuals and sometimes security
forces. But storming a cafe in a heavily guarded diplomatic district
is unprecedented and a dramatic escalation in violence.

The government has been caught unaware, and the attack exposes a big
hole in Bangladesh's intelligence gathering and security system.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cafe is described as being popular with expatriates, diplomats and
middle-class families.

Police and officers of Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion are at the scene
■Is extremism on the rise in Bangladesh?
■Lurching from secularism to sectarian terror?
Media reports quoted witnesses as saying that "Allahu Akbar", meaning
"God is greatest", was heard as the attack took place.

An eyewitness said she heard a loud noise, followed by continuous gunfire.

"The glass of my drawing room shattered," Rashila Rahim said.

"My auntie, her daughter and two friends went there for Iftar
(breaking of the Ramadan fasting) and they have not come back. We
cannot even check where they are."

Another local resident, Tarique Mir, said he could hear sporadic
gunfire nearly three hours after the attack began.

"It is chaos out there. The streets are blocked. There are dozens of
police commandos," he said.

BBC South Asia editor Jill McGivering says that although high-profile
gun attacks are rare in Bangladesh, the latest incident follows a
series of murders widely blamed on Islamist extremists.

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