Staff Reporter :
The government has approved compensation packages worth around Tk 2.79 crore (€300,000) for the families of 20 local and foreign victims who died in the terror attack on Holey Artisan Bakery last year.
The following the directives from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina the authorities concerned has been instructed to distribute the compensation packages by July 30.
After receiving order, the Public Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs has been working to take all necessary steps to distribute the compensate the families, Ministry of Home officials said.
The Finance Division issued a circular signed by Senior Assistant Secretary Md Rajibul Islam on Tuesday for the disbursement of the compensation packages from its risk management fund for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
According to the circular, each of the 20 families will receive around Tk13.95 lakh ( €15,000).
The victims are Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, Abinta Kabir, Ishrat Akhond, Tarishi Jain, Adele Puglisi, Claudia Maria D’Antona, Simona Monti, Marco Tondat, Nadia Benedetti, Vincenzo D’Allestro, Maria Rivoli, Cristian Rossi, Claudio Cappelli, Koyo Ogasawara, Makoto Okamura, Yuko Sakai, Rui Shimodaira, Hiroshi Tanaka, Nobuhiro Kurosaki and Hideki Hashimoto. Five terrorists stormed Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan, Dhaka on July 1, 2016, and killed 20 hostages, 17 of whom were foreign nationals, including nine Italian, seven Japanese and one Indian. Two policemen and two employees of the bakery also died because of the attack. Initially, a decision had been made to send compensation to the Italian families, but it was vetoed by Finance Minister AMA Muhith. On May 14, Muhith and Hasina exchanged a series of notes where he argued that it would be discriminatory to provide compensation to the Italian families only, and it could potentially embarrass Bangladesh. He proposed that the families of all victims, both local and foreign, should be compensated, the sources added.
In May this year, the government decided to pay compensation to the families of all 20 hostages who was killed by the terrorists. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed an order asking the Finance Division to arrange for a total of €135,000, or about Tk1.23 crore for giving compensation.
“We will provide assistance to the families of the citizens of different countries who were killed in the terrorist attack in Gulshan,” the prime minister said in the order. The amount was later raised to €300,000.
Finance Minister Muhith also suggested that the money be paid through the government exchequer as the Finance Division had said that it would not be possible to pay it from the Unexpected Expenditure Management Fund.
