Gulshan Cafe Attack: Five militants, chef buried

A relative showing a photo of Saiful on her mobile phone. Inset, the body identified as Saiful's. Photo: Collected

The five Gulshan attackers and the chef killed during a commando operation at the Holey Artisan Bakery over two and a half months ago were buried at the Jurain graveyard in the capital yesterday.

At police request, Anjuman-e-Mafidul Islam, a voluntary organisation, collected the bodies from the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) and buried them in the afternoon.

“No one contacted us or claimed the bodies. So, we requested the charity organisation to collect and bury them,” said Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner (media) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

The five militants  -- Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Khairul Islam Payel and Shafiqul Islam Uzzal -- were killed in the commando operation on July 2 morning, ending over an 11-hour siege to the upscale eatery.

 Apart from them, Saiful Islam, a chef of the café, was also killed at that time. Police suspect that Saiful was an associate of the killers but his family claims he was innocent.

The family came to know about Saiful's burial through television yesterday. 

Talking to The Daily Star, his younger sister Moyna Begum said they had repeatedly requested police to handover the body to them.

“They [police] used to tell us that they would give us the body on completion of some tests. We had demanded the body even when my mother went to Dhaka recently for matching her DNA with Saiful's.

“We just wanted to see his [Saiful's] face for once. But they did not even let us do that. They have buried my brother secretly,” she said while crying.

Moyna said her mother and Saiful's wife and their two daughters kept lamenting the fact that they could not see Saiful for the last time.

During the siege at the Gulshan café, the terrorists killed 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners, while two policemen who tried to enter the bakery lost their lives too.

An injured assistant chef also died later.

The authorities handed over the bodies of the victims to their families immediately after the incident.

Police collected DNA samples from the bodies of the five attackers and the chef and later matched them with their respective parents' to confirm their identity.

On Monday, Monirul Islam, chief of counter terrorism unit of the DMP, told reporters that they were yet to specifically find the two chef's involvement with the militants and said the investigation was underway.

Bodies of Other Militants At Dhaka Medical College

The bodies of 14 other militants killed in separate police raids at Kalyanpur, Narayanganj, Mirpur and Azimpur are kept at the Dhaka Medical College (DMC) Morgue following autopsies.

Recently, the DMC urged the DMP to take necessary steps to take back the bodies of 13 militants from its mortuary as the morgue's normal activities were being hampered due to a dearth of space in it.

Of the 14 bodies, nine are of militants who were killed in the Kalyanpur operation on July 26.

Contacted, a DMP official said it will take more time to decide on the handover of the bodies.

Meanwhile, Piyara Begum, mother of militant Khairul, told our Bogra correspondent that they had been claiming his body since the incident.

“Local police told us that they will inform us about the way for getting the body but they did not,” she said.

Bodiuzzaman, father of Shafiqul, said they did not even apply to get the militant's body back “fearing something bad”.