Law enforcers along with friends and family members on Monday paid homage to the victims of the Holey Artisan attack by laying floral wreaths on the then Holey Artisan bakery premises marking the third anniversary of the grisly attack. Chief of Counter-terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit Monirul Islam, Director General of Rapid Action Battalion Benazir Ahmed and a team of Dhaka Metropolitan Police placed floral wreaths on the premises.
Relatives and friends of the deceased were also seen there as the premises were opened to public from 10:00am. Five armed militants carried out the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan in the evening of July 1, 2016. They initially took the people inside the café hostage before killing many of them. The victims included nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladesh-born American and two Bangladeshis. Besides, two police officers were also killed during the attack.
Thirteen people, including three foreigners, were rescued while 20 bodies of the hostages were recovered from the restaurant after a successful operation led by the 1st Para-commando Battalion, an elite force in the Bangladesh Army, the following morning (July 2). Five militants and one restaurant staff were killed and one suspected militant was arrested during the drive.
A case was filed with Gulshan police station in connection with the deadliest terror attack ever in the country. Later, the case was transferred to the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). On July 23,2018, police pressed charges against eight people in the sensational case. Twenty-one people were identified behind the attack. Among them, 13 people were killed in gunfights at different times, said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit at a news briefing at the DMP headquarters.
Among the eight people, he said, six are now in jail and the remaining two are absconding. The six people are Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, Rakibul Hasan Rigan, Rashidul Islam alias Ryash, Sohel Mahfuz, Mizanur Rahman alias Choto Mizan, and Hadisur Rahman Sagor.
