Dhaka attack: Affluent and educated killers

DHAKA: The Bangladesh capital woke up to a cloudy Sunday after incessant rain through the night. But another spectre crept up and menaced Dhaka as it emerged that most of the cafe terrorists came from well-to-do families and might have been alumni of elite private institutions. "Terror activities in our country were always linked to madarsa students coming from a poor background and brainwashed by religious teachers.... The terror attack at the Holey Artisan cafe is a game-changer. I was surprised to learn about the background of the terrorists," said a businessman before taking a flight to Calcutta from Dhaka's Shah Jalal International Airport. Several times in the past, the rise of radicalisation has been linked to the spread of madarsas - which do offer an avenue for parents who cannot afford mainstream education for their children - across the country with funding from the Jamaat-e-Islami, the hardline party.

Against this backdrop, the limited information trickling out has caught Bangladesh by surprise and convulsed social media. Reports in local media, which spoke to acquaintances of the attackers and picked up information from social media, suggested that the gunmen were not have-nots. Although tight-lipped on specific information, officials also echoed the view. Official sources have identified five of the gunmen as Akash, Bikash, Don, Badhon and Ripon. However, The Daily Star newspaper of Bangladesh said friends of three of these attackers cited different names: Nibras Islam, Meer Saameh Mubasher and Rohan Imtiaz.

Nibras is an alumnus of Turkish Hope School and North South University, "a top private university" in Dhaka, according to the Star. He pursued higher studies on the Australian Monash University's Malaysia campus, according to his friends. Similarly, Meer and Rohan, son of a politician, were students of an elite school in Dhaka, their friends said. All three youths had disappeared from the social circuit a few months ago and sources close to their families said they could notice sudden signs of religious leanings among them. The profiles of the young men - they appeared to be in their twenties and the government said three were aged below 22 - did not fit the usual template of poor economic background and education rooted in seminaries. Sumir Barai, a cook at the Holey Artisan Bakery where the hostage situation unfolded on Friday night, said the attackers spoke cosmopolitan Bengali and some English when conversing with the foreigners. "They were all smart and handsome and educated," The New York Times quoted him as saying. "If you look at those guys, nobody could believe they could do this." The attackers' background was more in sync with that of many of their victims who had varied interests and were thriving in a wired world than the stereotypes yoked to terrorism. The change in the profile of the perpetrators of terror in Bangladesh - which witnessed machete-wielding zealots pouncing on individuals -suggests radicalisation is spreading its reach and climbing up the social ladder of the country, which has clocked steady economic growth for around a decade.

"Look at Osama bin Laden, who came from a privileged background. People from rich background leading terror activities is common in Central Asia and other parts of the world.... The worry is it has come to Bangladesh and we have to counter this," said human rights activist and anti-radicalisation crusader Shahriar Kabir. According to him, the most potent tool to fight radicalisation was to instil Bengali pride among the youths, many of whom are not aware of their roots and the sacrifice made by their predecessors to liberate and build Bangladesh. A retired officer, Maj. Gen. Abdur Rashid, suggested monitoring of private universities, several of which are funded and run by the Jamaat-e-Islami, an ally of the country's main Opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. "These universities are outside the purview of monitoring.... There are more than a hundred such institutions. The curriculum and the teachers should be under the scanner as we cannot allow radicalisation of young minds," he added. The Bangladesh government insisted the attack was the handiwork of "homegrown" terrorists, blamed Pakistan's ISI and ruled out the involvement of the Islamic State. Hossain Toufique Imam, the political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the way in which the hostages were killed with machetes suggested the role of a local terrorist group, the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. "Pakistan's ISI and Jamaat connection is well known... they want to derail the current government," Imam told a TV channel. Bangladesh police chief Shahidul Hoque claimed that five of the attackers were "listed as militants and law enforcers made several drives to arrest them". Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said neither the Islamic State nor al Qaida was involved. "This was done by JMB," Khan said, referring to the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, which claims to represent the Islamic State in Bangladesh. Only a suspect The home minister clarified tonight that a person taken alive by the police was only a suspect. Official sources had yesterday given the impression that his status as a gunman had been established. Six terrorists had been killed. Khan said the militants had not made any demands. -The Telegraph Calcutta