Indian doctor Dr Satyapal was one of the hostages released on Saturday morning during the siege in Dhaka. Since Satyapal spoke fluent Bengali, he apparently came out as one among the Bangladeshis. Officials told PTI that the terrorists mistook him for a Bangladeshi.
The gunmen, who stormed the busy restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic area late on Friday night, ordered all Bangladeshis to stand up before they began killing foreigners, a source briefed on the police investigation said.
The family of an eyewitness told PTI that the gunmen did a background check on the religion of the captives by asking them to recite Quranic verses and tortured those who could not do so.
The people rescued in the morning included seven Bangladeshi. The other 3-4 hostages, who are in hospital undergoing treatment, included two Sri Lankans, one Japanese and an Italian.
About a dozen Bangladeshi staff of the Holey Artisan bakery were also rescued in the morning and have been segregated by police for interrogation.
Islamist militants killed 20 people, including at least nine Italians, inside the upmarket O'Kitchen restaurant in Bangladesh's capital, before security forces stormed the building and ended a 12-hour standoff on Saturday. On Friday night, three people had escaped, that included an Italian and two Japanese nationals.
Islamic State said it was responsible for the attack but that claim has yet to be confirmed. It marks a major escalation in a campaign by militants over the past 18 months that had targeted mostly individuals advocating a secular or liberal lifestyle in majority-Muslim Bangladesh.
With agency inputs
