New York Times piece Gunmen Seize Hostages at Bangladesh Restaurant and Detonate Explosives Gunmen detonated explosives and took a number of people hostage at a restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh, setting off a bloody standoff with the police on Friday night in the capital’s diplomatic zone. Witnesses took to Twitter to report hearing gunfire, and posted images of armed paramilitary officers surrounding the restaurant, the Holey Artisan Bakery, which is said to be popular with expatriates, diplomats and middle-class families. It is in the city’s Gulshan neighborhood. Local media reported that as many as 10 police officers had been shot in the standoff, and television stations broadcast footage of bloodied officers being carried on stretchers from the scene. The total number of hostages, some of whom are believed to be citizens of Western nations, was not known. Neither was the number of the attackers, or their identities. And of course the State Department said they don't know who did it, having probably ruled out Muslims out of knee jerk reflex. Sumon Reza, a kitchen worker at the restaurant who escaped, told The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper, that several armed men entered the restaurant around 8:45 p.m. and took hostages. “They blasted several crude bombs, causing wide-scale panic among everyone,” he was quoted as saying. “I managed to flee during this confusion.” Mr. Reza said that the attackers were armed with pistols, swords and bombs and that they shouted “God is great” before detonating their explosives, the newspaper said. In Bangladesh in recent years, there have been dozens of killings of atheist writers, foreigners, bloggers, religious minorities, gay rights activists and others — mostly in machete attacks, but also in shootings and bombings. The police in Bangladesh say the killings have been organized by two militant Islamic groups that recruit young men from religious schools and train them to carry out attacks. Perhaps the US should convince their religious schools to form sports leagues where their militants try to blow each other up in competitions on athletic fields or something.
@gul will be along shortly to explain how this is a purely political act with no religious connotations whatsoever.
Not going to have that conversation with a blind man, sorry. But go ahead and tell me how the IRA was a purely religious based group, only interested in advancng religious issues.
Obviously the Bangladesh attackers are upset about genetically modified rice. The witnesses were confused. What they were hollering was "natural rice is great!"
I thought part of the IRAs beefs were that Protestants had historically better land, better jobs, and more money in general than the Catholics.
ISIS has claimed responsibility. Daily Mail coverage Police are preparing to storm a restaurant in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka where Islamist gunmen connected with ISIS are holding around 20 hostages after they shot two officers dead in a shoot-out. As many as nine gunmen entered the Holey Artisan restaurant and opened fire, unleashing at least 50 shots and hurling makeshift bombs. The attackers are holding around 20 people hostage at gunpoint, including foreigners, inside the Spanish restaurant in the upmarket Gulshan area. Police are preparing heavily-armoured vehicles in an attempt to storm the premises, which is also near to a hospital, and rescue those held inside. No connection to Islam...
It has nothing to do with the fact they are Muslim. Muslims are all hard working members of society who just want peace and love.
And hostages who could recite passages from the Koran were spared. Foreigners were killed, as were two Emory students and a student at Berkeley. Among the dead were nine Italians and seven Japanese.
Some FUBAR news source had a headline saying foreigners and students in the US. Pretty bad ass if you can attack on two continents at the same time. I think they mean students from the US. Wouldn't US students have been an even better choice? Don't reporters and editors and whatnot have to have some college level education to get the job?
Bangladesh was relatively peaceful other than the sickingly routine muslim assassinations of atheists, religious minorities, gays, and all the usual people muslims like to kill.
They had big problems in the 70's during their independence war but that was 40 years ago. It remains a dirt poor country and about half the country will simply disappear with sea level rise but not usual radical.
