Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
The home and foreign citizens will remember the victims who lost their lives during the deadly militant attack on the Holy Artisan Bakkery in the city’s Gulshan on July 1 in 2016.
Hundreds of men will gather on the old premises of the bakery to pay respect to the victims with tears.
Mourners, including foreigners, placed flowers there as the once upscale restaurant was open to public yesterday for four hours from around 9:30am to mark the 2nd anniversary of the attack that left a deep scar on the nation’s psyche.
Several delegations from Japan, Spain, Italy and China along with few representatives will pay homage to the victims today (Sunday) morning.
The commemorative letters from the conceend countries will be read out with a quiet moment of remembrance.
“I have no blood relations with the victims, but I feel for all of them like my near and dear ones. I will go there to pay tributes on occasion of the second anniversary of the attack,” Likon Mia, an inhabitant of Gulshan, told The New Nation on Satuday evening.
“I don’t want to recall those moments; I have witnessed people being slaughtered mercilessly. I want to move on and forgetting the incident,” said the staff member, who had been a hostage and was released alongside the others.
“It was a big incident. It cost us many lives and caused my trade loss. Two years later I am still trying to recover,” said Sadat Mehdi.
The sources of intelligence agencies and Foreign Ministry said, around 100 Bangladeshi-born and national militants have been moving abroad, including Syria, Afganistan, Malaysia, India and Thailand. They are still considered as the threat to the country. Most of them are influenced by the Islamic State (IS) militants and manage Bangladesh militants to leave the country, they said.
In this context, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali recently said that activities of terror and targeted killings only strengthened the government’s resolve to eradicate fanaticism and religious intolerance from society.
“After the terrorist attack in the Holey Artisan Bakery in 2016, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken extensive counter and preventive measures against terrorism and violent extremism,” the minister said.
“We’ve welcomed the Fatwa of Peace for Humanity published by the Bangladesh Jamaiatul Ulama and endorsed by hundred thousand Islamic jurists, scholars and clerics, which preach on the peaceful and non-violent nature of Islam,” he said.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam said that fundamentalism begins under the shelter of political parties like Jamaat-e-Islam and it is government’s responsibility to check and stop recruitment flow.
“Radicalisation process through social media has dropped significantly though few from abroad are still trying in some cases,” he said.
Meanwhile, the charge sheet against eight militants out of 21 people will be submitted this week in a case filed over the attack in Gulshan in July 2016, said the chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Monirul Islam on Saturday.
Talking to the reporters at his office, CTTC chief said a total of 13 militants among the 21 people were killed during different gunfights with law enforcers.
Another six are serving jail terms while the remaining two are on the run, he said. However, he did not mention the names and identifications of the suspects.
Earlier, a case was filed with Gulshan Police Station in connection with the worst terror attack. Later, the case was transferred to the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
Now, Inspector Humayun Ahmed of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) has been investigating the case as its investigation officer (IO).
Investigation into the case relating to July 1, 2016 militant attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan is now at the stage of nearing completion as involvement of 21 operatives of the neo-Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) have so far been found in the attack.
