Zee Media Bureau, Delhi :Even as the world continues to grapple with the terror attack in Bangladesh which killed 20 people, mostly foreigners, in a barbaric attack on a cafe, a post on social media by a Kolkata-based professor about a victim has gone viral.Professor Aloke Kumar, who is a professor of communication at the University of Calcutta, was friends with the Dhaka-based HR professional Ishrat Akhond.Ishrat was among those who died in the terror attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan diplomatic zone. My friend Ishrat was brutally tortured and killed by terrorist in a Dhaka restaurant yesterday when she was there with several Italian Fashion Designer. Most of the Muslim Bangladeshis were spared after they identified themselves and recited lines from the Koran. Ishrat who was not wearing a Hijab and neither wanted to prove herself was hacked to death with a machete.Twenty other foreign hostages were also hacked to death with sharp weapons by terrorists during a dramatic siege at an upmarket Dhaka restaurant that ended in a bloodbath today morning.The majority of the victims were from Italy and Japan. There was one young girl. A student from India Tarushi Jain. No Britons have yet been confirmed among the casualties. Two Sri Lankans and one Japanese hostage were rescued, along with around a dozen Bangladeshis.Six of the attackers were shot dead and one captured during the raid on the Holey Artisan Bakery, an expatriates’ favourite.Holey Artisan Bakery, an expatriates’ favourite.I am devastated on hearing the news as I was in touch with her periodically. She had come down to Calcutta last September and we had discussed my possible Lecture tour of the Universities of Bangladesh. This was scheduled to begin in the Fall Semester.Usually my notes are long but today I have run out of words.Love you Ishrat, wherever you are. Army commandos had stormed the eatery and rescued 13 hostages, killing six attackers while capturing one alive. The Army had said that 20 people were found dead on the premises during the raid, all possibly slaughtered late on Friday, hours before the commandos raided the cafe.It has been confirmed that the hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese and an Indian. Three Bangladeshis were also among the dead and one of them was a US citizen.
