The July 2016 Dhaka attack or Holey Artisan terrorist attack took place on the night of 1 July 2016, at 21:20 Bangladesh Standard Time (UTC+06:00), when five Islamic State (IS) terrorists took hostages and opened fire on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan Thana jurisdiction in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The terrorists entered the bakery with crude bombs, machetes, and pistols, and took several dozen hostages, including foreign nationals. In the immediate response while Dhaka Metropolitan Police tried to regain control of the bakery, two police officers were shot dead by the assailants.
By the end of the security forces' operation, 29 people were killed, including 20 hostages (17 foreigners and three Bangladeshis), two police officers, five terrorists, and two bakery staff. After the police failed to breach the bakery and secure the hostages, they set up a perimeter along with the Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh. Very early on 2 July (around 03:00), it was decided that the Bangladesh Armed Forces would launch a counter-assault named Operation Thunderbolt. The assault was led by the 1st Para-commando Battalion, an elite force in the Bangladesh Army under the leadership of operational commander Brigadier General Mujibur Rahman, and began at 07:40. According to Bangladesh's Inspector General of Police, all of the attackers were Bangladeshi citizens. IS claimed responsibility for the incident and released photographs of the gunmen, but then- Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan stated that the perpetrators belonged to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and were not affiliated with IS.
The incident was described by BBC News as the "deadliest Islamist attack in Bangladeshi history." The local media referred to it as the 7/16 attack.
Background
The Constitution of Bangladesh declares secularism as one of the four fundamental principles of the country but also recognises Islam as the state religion. Around 91% of Bangladeshis are Muslims, with the rest being Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and others.
The terrorist Islamic organisation Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was founded in 1998 and outlawed in 2005 when it committed a series of bombings, but later took up activities again. Bangladesh government later tried and hanged Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqur Rahman, two leaders of the organisation.
Some attacks came from another Islamic terrorist group outlawed in 2005 named Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, including the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack and 2001 Ramna Batamul bombings. Mufti Hannan, the leader of the terrorist group was sentenced to death on 23 December 2008.
Since 2013, Muslim-majority Bangladesh has experienced an increase in Islamist attacks on religious minorities, secularist and atheist writers and bloggers, LGBT rights activists and liberal-minded Muslims. Since September 2015, there have been over 30 such attacks, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have claimed responsibility for 21 of them. Ansarullah Bangla Team, another terrorist group outlawed on 25 May 2015, also claimed responsibility for some of them.
In November 2015, the IS magazine Dabiq published an article calling for the "revival of jihad in Bengal".
Gulshan is a well off, upscale residential neighbourhood of Dhaka and is home to many foreign embassies.
Attack and hostage
The attack started at about 21:40 local time. Five attackers entered the restaurant armed with bombs, pistols, and assault rifles. One attacker also had a sword. They opened fire indiscriminately and detonated several of the bombs. Several patrons dove under their tables, while panicked staff members ran onto the stairs. An Argentinian-Italian chef named Diego Rossini bolted upstairs, while several restaurant employees followed him. They then jumped onto the rooftops of nearby buildings.
Staff on the second floor ran and hid inside a restroom. A total of 8 staff members were hiding inside the restroom. The restroom was warm and cramped, as it was storing yeast and flour. The attackers then went upstairs and walked in front of the door, shouting "Bengali people, come out... If you're Muslims, come out." Because there was no answer, the gunmen thought that there was no one inside the restroom, and locked the restroom's door. The staff members inside the restroom began to text their relatives, stating that they were inside the restroom and pleaded for help. The attackers then took many hostages, almost all foreigners. Reports indicate that the attackers were "unfailingly polite and solicitous" with the restaurant staff and other Bangladeshis. They took the staff into their confidence, complaining that foreigners, with their skimpy clothes and taste for alcohol, were impeding the spread of Islam. "Their lifestyle is encouraging local people to do the same thing," a militant said.
Alerted by the gunfire, police detective Rabiul Karim and officer-in-charge Salauddin Khan started to investigate. Other police officers responded, arriving at the restaurant. The attackers then engaged in a shootout with the police. Police cordoned off the area around the restaurant and planned a rescue raid. The attackers however threw grenades and fired, killing officers Karim and Khan.
DMP Commissioner, Asaduzzaman Mia, and several officers struck inside and opened fire on the terrorists in an attempt to rescue civilians from the site. 9 people were brought back from the site in the attempt. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was briefed by the Commissioner and she instructed him to move away with his men and informed him the Army Chief Belal Shafiul Huq was on his way from Sylhet.
The attackers then spotted one member of staff, named Miraj, who hid in the corner. One of the gunman told Miraj: "Everyone else ran away but you couldn't make it, that means God wants you to die." The gunman then strapped him to a chair with explosives, creating their human shield. The gunmen then separated the Muslims from the non-Muslims. The Muslims were given food and water, while the non-Muslims, were not. On the early morning of 2 July, the attackers began releasing hostages. A group of women wearing hijabs were released by the attackers; they offered a young Bangladeshi man, Faraaz Hossain, the opportunity to leave as well. However, Hossain refused their offer and refused to leave his friends, who were prohibited from leaving by the gunmen.
Pictures allegedly taken from inside the restaurant were circulated on Twitter by pro-IS accounts and show several bodies and pools of blood on the floor. The daily Kaler Kantho reported that the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam announced the upcoming attack via a tweet almost 10 hours before the actual attack took place.
In 2026, the restaurant's founder, Nasirul Alam Porag, gave an interview detailing his experience through the event for the first time. Porag was in Bangkok, Thailand after three weeks of opening its first outlet there when the attack took place. He followed the event live via security cameras in the restaurant and was fed live in-detail updates from the scene. According to him, his biggest concerns then were only his staffs and guests.
Rescue operation
The rescue operation was ordered by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and was named Operation Thunderbolt. The planning of the Operation was finalized at a meeting between the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Armed forces chiefs and top officials of different law enforcement agencies. The operation was led by 1st Para-Commando Battalion under the leadership of Operational Commander Brigadier General Mujibur Rahman of the Bangladesh Army's 46 Independent Infantry Brigade . Members of the Bangladesh Army, Navy, Air Force, Border Guard Bangladesh, Police, Rapid Action Battalion, and SWAT started the rescue operation at 07:40 local time. Commandos stormed into the bakery with nine APCs acting in support, smashing through the wall. A man, living next to the restaurant, took a video of the operation and tweeted it on internet. Within 12 to 13 minutes, they took control over the area. The rescue operation lasted around 50 minutes. Bangladesh Army chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq and Bangladesh Navy chief Admiral Mohammad Nizamuddin Ahmed were present in the area during the raid.
Thirteen hostages were rescued. Five of the attackers were killed exchanging fire with the commandos, while the sixth was captured alive. During the operation one of the bakery's chefs was mistakenly identified as an attacker by the commandos and shot dead.
Two of the hostages, Tahmid Hasib Khan and Hasnat Karim, were taken by police for questioning, and subsequently vanished amidst confusion about whether they had been released or not.
Casualties
Twenty-two civilians, five terrorists, and two police officers were confirmed killed, while 50 others, mostly police personnel, were injured. The two dead police officers included Rabiul Islam, Assistant Commissioner of Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and Salahuddin Ahmed, officer-in-charge of the nearby Banani police station. Nine Italian citizens were among the victims. The Bangladesh Army initially announced that all 20 hostages killed in the attack were foreigners, and that they were "killed brutally with sharp weapons" by the perpetrators. Those who could recite a verse from the Quran from memory were spared in an effort to only kill non-Muslims. Later a chef of the bakery was identified among the dead bodies. An injured staff of the bakery died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on 8 July 2016.
Among the dead were seven Japanese citizens – five men and two women – who were associated with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). One of the women was pregnant at the time. Tarishi Jain, a 19-year-old female student of the University of California, Berkeley, of Indian nationality, was also killed. She was the only Indian killed in the attack.
The dead included:
- Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain (Bangladeshi)
- Ishrat Akhond (Bangladeshi)
- Rabiul Karim (Bangladeshi)
- Salauddin Khan (Bangladeshi)
- Saiful Islam Chowkidar (Bangladeshi)
- Zakir Hossain Shaon (Bangladeshi)
- Abinta Kabir (Bangladeshi)
- Cristian Rossi (Italian)
- Marco Tondat (Italian)
- Nadia Benedetti (Italian)
- Adele Puglisi (Italian)
- Simona Monti (Italian)
- Claudia Maria D'Antona (Italian)
- Vincenzo D'Allestro (Italian)
- Maria Rivoli (Italian)
- Claudio Cappelli (Italian)
- Hideki Hashimoto (Japanese)
- Nobuhiro Kurosaki (Japanese)
- Koyo Ogasawara (Japanese)
- Makoto Okamura (Japanese)
- Yuko Sakai (Japanese)
- Rui Shimodaira (下平瑠衣 Shimodaira Rui; Japanese)
- Hiroshi Tanaka (田中宏 Japanese)
- Tarishi Jain (Indian)
The five terrorists who died during rescue operation by military and joint forces were:
- Nibras Islam
- Rohan Imtiaz
- Meer Saameh Mubasheer
- Khairul Islam
- Shafiqul Islam
Among the injured were 25 police personnel there were several higher-ranking officers of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police including an Additional Commissioner, two Additional Deputy Commissioners, the Officer-in-charge of the Gulshan police station and an Inspector.
The Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Giro had attended a meeting in Bangladesh and visited the attack site. He then took the bodies of 9 Italian victims and carried them to their homeland in Italy. The plane carrying the bodies landed on 5 July at Ciampino Military Airbase south of Rome, Italy. Autopsy shows that all nine Italians were tortured in the attack. Several of them were slashed with knives and several of them were mutilated. Authorities confirmed that the nine Italian victims suffered "slow and agonizing death".
Relatives of the seven Japanese victims in the attack were flown to Bangladesh to view and identify the bodies, accompanied by Senior Vice Foreign Minister Seiji Kihara, Foreign Ministry and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. A ceremony for the repatriation of the bodies were held at a stadium in Dhaka, which was attended by the Japan's Ambassador to Bangladesh, Masato Watanabe. The bodies of the seven Japanese victims were flown to Tokyo on 5 July. The plane took off from Shahjalal International Airport at 8:40 pm local Bangladesh time.
Survivors recalled that the attackers had no mercy to the foreigners. One of the survivors stated that an Indian woman, identified as Tarishi Jain, who had been badly injured, was moaning in agony but a perpetrator took a sword to her and killed her without mercy.
Responsibility
An initial report from Amaq News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic State, said the group claimed it had killed 24 people and wounded 40 others. A second report, issued directly by ISIL a few hours later, said the group had killed "22 crusaders" and was accompanied by photos of the attackers, standing in front of IS banners.
According to The New York Times, citing Bangladesh police, the attackers were named Akash, Badhon, Bikash, Don, and Ripon. IS referred to the five men by their kunya which were Abu Omar al-Bengali, Abu Salmah al-Bengali, Abu Rahim al-Bengali, Abu Muslim al-Bengali and Abu Muharib al-Bengali. According to The New York Times, pictures of the bodies of the five men, released by Bangladeshi police, matched five photographs of the men released by ISIL.