Gunmen in Bangladesh Open Fire, Take Hostages at Restaurant
by VOA News July 01, 2016
Police in Bangladesh say gunmen have attacked a restaurant in the diplomatic zone of the capital, Dhaka, and have taken around 20 hostages.
The U.S. State Department confirmed on Twitter that a hostage situation is taking place at the Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic enclave. It urged people to take shelter and monitor the news.
Bangladeshi police say 8 to 9 gunmen entered the restaurant in the upscale Gulshan area around 9:20 p.m. local time Friday. They say several foreigners are among those still trapped inside.
Police cordoned off the area around the restaurant and exchanged gunfire with the attackers, who set off explosives. At least one policeman was killed in the fighting.
The head of Bangladesh's elite anti-crime force, Benazir Ahmed, said police are "trying to talk to the attackers. We want to listen to them about what they want."
A bakery employee who escaped the attack has told reporters the gunmen shouted "Allah Akbar" ("God is the greatest") prior to taking hostages.
Lori Ann Walsh Imdad, principal of the American Standard School in Dhaka, lives one block from the restaurant and described the scene to VOA.
"I started hearing the shots outside. ... Then I started very cautiously looking out of my balcony to see what was going on, but you could really hear the shots in the distance, and could see people running around."
She said that by 12:30 a.m. local time, the streets were quiet, although there was still a large police presence.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. has accounted for all Americans working at the U.S. mission in Dhaka.
Bangladesh has seen a series of attacks in recent months, mostly targeting bloggers, atheists and religious minorities. Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, or AQIS, has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.
On Thursday, the United States declared AQIS a "foreign terrorist organization" and called its leader, Asim Umar, a "specially designated global terrorist."
The State Department said the terrorist designations are meant to prohibit Americans from engaging in any transactions with the group or Umar. The designations also freeze any assets or property under U.S. jurisdiction that are tied to Umar or AQIS.
Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the formation of the group on the Indian subcontinent in 2014 and Umar has appeared in al-Qaida publications as the leader of the Indian offshoot. Umar is believed to be based in Pakistan but was born in the mid-1970s in India.
Maaz Hussain contributed to this report.
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