Verdict on Holey Artisan attack case Nov 27

A Dhaka court will pronounce its verdict on November 27 in a case lodged over 2016 terrorist attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in capital's Gulshan area.

Judge Md Mujibur Rahman of Dhaka Anti-terrorism Special Tribunal fixed the date today.

A total of 113 out of 211 witnesses have testified in the case.

Militants killed 20 innocent people, most of them foreigners, in the grisly attack at the cafe on July 1, 2016. Two police officials valiantly laid down their lives while trying to save people there. Later, five militants were killed in a commando operation.

Police filed the case under the anti-terror act with Gulshan Police Station. The trial initiated on November 26, 2018.

What happened at Holey Artisan Bakery

Five heavily armed militants took hostages and opened fire on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic zone at around 9pm on July 1 in 2016.

The assailants entered into the bakery with crude bombs, machetes, pistols, and took several dozen hostages including foreigners. In the immediate response Dhaka Metropolitan Police tried to regain control of the bakery and two police officers were shot dead by the assailants.

As the police were unsuccessful in breaching the bakery and securing the hostages, they set up a perimeter along with the Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guards Bangladesh. 

Later on early hours of 2 July, it was decided that the Bangladesh Armed Forces would launch a counter assault named Operation Thunderbolt. The assault was led by the 1st Para-commando Battalion, an elite force in the Bangladesh Army, and began their raid at 07:40am. 

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladesh-born US citizen were found slaughtered inside the bakery.

According to the police, all of the attackers were Bangladeshi citizens. They were identified as Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Khairul Islam Payel and Shafiqul Islam Uzzal. 

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack and released photographs of the gunmen, but the home minister of Bangladesh, Asaduzzaman Khan, stated that the perpetrators belonged to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and were not affiliated with ISIL.

The incident was the worst terrorist attack in Bangladesh's history.