Dhaka attack: One of the terrorists was a Shaddha Kapoor fan

One of the terrorists who participated in the Dhaka terror attack was a regular kid, well-educated and from an affluent family and even met Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor once, reported India Today.

Nibras Islam was reportedly brainwashed and radicalised. A video shows him hanging out with his friends in a car, speaking fluently in English and joking around. According to his Facebook profile, he studied at Monash University in Malaysia and North South University in Dhaka. 

His last tweet was from 2014 which said: “Alhamdulillah. Happiness is being with your loved ones. And being with friends you missed.”

Various reports claimed that the terrorists were all age between 20 and 21 and were students of Dhaka’s North South University. Nibras, it seems had been missing from January. Other youngsters involved in the attack passed out of schools in the city like Scholastica and Turkish International School.

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The Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan was quoted saying that all the kid were educated young men who went to university, and it had become a ‘fashion’ to become a militant.

Police release photos of five attackers

Police released photographs of the bodies of five attackers, along with their first names: Akash, Badhon, Bikash, Don and Ripon. The men belonged to the banned domestic group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB, and their families hadn't heard from them in months, according to police. Asked whether they might also have had Daesh ties, Police Inspector General A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque said authorities were investigating that possibility.

Despite the police saying Daesh links were being investigated, the home minister refuted the possibility that Daesh directed the attack from abroad. Bangladesh's government insists the group based in Syria and Iraq has no presence in the country, and in the past has suggested that any claims of responsibility for violence waged in the South Asian country are simply opportunistic attempts at grabbing global attention.

"They are all Bangladeshis. They are from rich families, they have good educational background," Khan said of the attackers. One surviving suspect was detained when paramilitary forces ended the 10-hour standoff Saturday morning, and authorities said he was being interrogated.

The siege marked an escalation in the militant violence that has hit Bangladesh with increasing frequency. Most of the attacks in the past several months have involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities.

Rich Families

Deputy Inspector General of Police Shahidur Rahman told Reuters on Sunday that authorities were investigating any connection between the attackers and transnational groups such as Islamic State or al Qaeda. He said the militants were mostly educated and from well-off families, but declined to give any more details.

National police chief Shahidul Hoque said all the gunmen were Bangladeshis. "Five of them were listed as militants and law enforcers made several drives to arrest them," he said.

Whoever was responsible, the attack marked a major escalation in violence by militants demanding Islamic rule in Bangladesh, whose 160 million people are mostly Muslim. Previous attacks have mostly singled out individuals advocating a secular or liberal lifestyle, or religious minorities.

Reciting Quran verse

Friday night's attack, during the final days of Ramadan, was more coordinated than the previous assaults. Gunmen singled out foreigners as soon as they stormed through the doors of the restaurant popular with expatriates. They ordered all Bangladeshis to stand up before the killing began, a source briefed on the investigation said.

The Bangladeshis were later told to close their eyes and recite verses from the Koran. One militant cursed a Bangladeshi for eating with non-Muslims during Ramadan, the source said. The Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency claimed in a report on Saturday that the militants identified and released Muslim patrons from the Dhaka restaurant, SITE said. The victims also included at least three Bangladeshis or people of Bangladeshi descent.
The militants hacked most of their victims with machetes, leaving their bleeding bodies on the floor. 

A standoff of nearly 12 hours with security forces ended when the commandos stormed the building, killing six of the militants and capturing a seventh after attempts at negotiations proved fruitless, authorities said. They recovered explosives and sharp weapons from the scene. It was not clear if the attackers had made any demands.

Home-grown groups

Up until Friday's attack, authorities had maintained no operational links existed between Bangladeshi militants and international jihadi networks. Bangladesh has blamed JMB and another home-grown outfit for the wave of grisly killings over the past year and a half.

One line of inquiry being pursued was whether the restaurant attackers received any guidance from Islamic State or al Qaeda, an official in Bangladesh's counter-terrorism wing said.
"Pictures (uploaded on Twitter) indicate they might have been encouraged by ISIS (Islamic State) activities abroad," said Muhammad Zamir, a former senior foreign ministry official.
"But this does not show a direct link to ISIS. This is exactly what was done and disputed later in the case of the Orlando attack," he said, referring to the killing of 49 people last month by a man who pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

Friday's attack in Dhaka was the worst since 2005, when JMB set off a series of bombs throughout Bangladesh in the space of an hour that killed at least 25 people, mostly judges, police and journalists.
The authorities executed six top JMB leaders in March 2007 and police have continued to hunt for group members, often detaining suspected militants following intelligence tips.

In February, Bangladesh police arrested three JMB members suspected of killing a Hindu priest. Islamic state has claimed responsibility for a series of other attacks in Bangladesh in recent months since first taking credit for a killing in September last year. 

An Italian missionary was shot and wounded in the neck last November. Another Italian and a Japanese citizen were killed in attacks at the end of September and early October last year.

With agency inputs