B’desh court sentences Islamist to death for 2016 cafe attack

DHAKA: Seven Islamist extremists have been sentenced to death by a Bangladesh court over a savage 2016 attack that killed 22 people including 18 foreigners at a Dhaka cafe popular with Westerners.

A special anti-terrorism tribunal delivered the verdict in a crowded courtroom in the capital Dhaka, with judge Mojibur Rahman saying the attackers wanted “to draw the attention of Islamic State” group.

They wanted to “undermine public safety, create anarchy and “establish a Jihad(ist)” state, he said, adding that the seven “will be executed by hanging until they are pronounced dead”. Some of the men shouted “Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)” and “long live faith of Islam”, before they were led to a police van. An eighth man who had been charged was acquitted. The brazen assault in July 2016 saw young men armed with assault rifles and machetes lay siege to the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Dhaka´s well-heeled Gulshan neighbourhood. Police investigators said the attack was aimed at destabilising the Muslim majority nation of 168 million people and to turn it into an Islamist state.

Nine Italians and seven Japanese were among the foreigners to be hacked or shot dead. Two policemen were also killed. Military commandos stormed the cafe after a 10-hour standoff and freed more than two dozen hostages.