Joint forces have cleared Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan on Saturday morning killing six attackers who took at least 20 hostages, including foreigners, on Friday night.
Thirteen hostages were rescued alive, said prime minister Sheihkh Hasina at a function after the rescue operation ended.
At news conference at army headquarters, Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said the operation could rescue 13 hostages alive, caught one of the attackers and killed six attackers.
The short lasting operation named Operation Thunderbolt also found bodies of 20 people who were killed with sharp weapons last night. The bodies have been kept at Combined Military Hospital at Dhaka Cantonment.
The joint team comprised of army commandos, police, SWAT, RAB and BGB completed the rescue operation at Gulshan Spanish restaurant Holey Artisan Bakery.
Naval intelligence chief Commodore Mohammad Sohail, who closely monitored the rescue operation, told New Age that they have found four bodies inside the restaurant, where an unknown number of people, including foreigners, were kept hostages by gunmen.
Identity of the dead and rescued people could not be confirmed immediately.
The joint team began the operation about 7:45am with more than half-a-dozen armored vehicles. The operation continued for nearly an hour before some of the rescued people were taken to hospital by waiting ambulance.
The chief of army staff General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq and inspector general of police Shahidul Hoque visited the spot in the morning before the commando forces begin their rescue operation.
Gunmen stormed into the Spanish restaurant in Gulshan diplomatic zone in Dhaka on Friday night, triggering a gunfight with police that left at least two senior police officers killed and 28 injured.
The gunmen kept a number of customers including several foreigners, who went there for dinner, and restaurant staff hostage till filing of this report at 8:30am.
A waiter of the restaurant told his relative over phone that some people were lying dead inside the restaurant. ‘We are in danger. They [gunmen] told us if police open fire, they will kill us,’ a hostage told his relatives over phone.
The exact number of hostages and their nationality could not be confirmed immediately. Italian state television RAI quoted the Italian ambassador in Dhaka, Mario Palma to say that the hostages include seven Italian businessmen.
US-based SITE Intelligence Group said that the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. ‘#ISIS’ ‘Amaq News Agency reported that #ISIS fighters carried out the attack at a restaurant in #Dhaka #Bangladesh,’ SITE said in a Twitter message. In a further update the group also claimed that over 20 people of different nationalities were killed in the incident.
Heavily armed police and paramilitary guards cordoned off the area after the gunfight broke out at about 9:20pm. Some of the restaurant staff members and customers, however, managed to flee.
Assistant deputy commissioner of Gulshan zone of police SM Azimul Huq confirmed that Detective Branch assistant commissioner Robiul Islam and Banani police officer-in-charge Mohammad Salahuddin were killed.
Source: New Age