Horror: Dhaka Rescuers Discover 20 Hostages Had Already Been Murdered - Most Hacked to Death

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Outside Holy Artisans Bakery, after the rescue attempt

A few hours ago, the news seemed better. Most or all of the Muslim terrorists had been killed. At least five hostages had been rescued. There were no reports of additional deaths.

However, there was the question of what happened to the presumed other hostages? There were also gruesome photographs released by an ISIS front that showed murdered diners in pools of blood. Many wondered whether it was a fake.

It now appears that most of the hostages had been murdered hours before.

When the Muslim terrorists entered the restaurant they found twenty or so diners - mostly foreigners - and ten to fifteen staff - mostly Bangladeshis.

They asked them to recite versus from the Koran. Those who could not were separated from the others and possibly killed immediately.

Reports indicate they were hacked to death.

The dead included at least nine Italians up to seven Japanese, and two young-women from India and Bangladesh. [It now appears that the latter may have been an American citizen.]

One of the young woman, Tarishi Jain, was studying at UC Berkeley. The other, Abinta Kabir was studying at Emory and lived in Miami, Florida.

Tarishi Jain

Abinta Kabir

At this writing (9:00 PM Bangladeshi time, 10:00 AM CST) most of the other dead have not been identified and there has not been conformation on the numbers. Officials in the countries concerned are presumably holding back until they can contact relatives.

It should be noted that at least two Bangladeshi policeman lost their lives in the firefight immediately following the terrorists storming the restaurant. Many more were injured. A few of the hostages managed to escape. Thirteen were rescued.

It appears that six terrorists were killed and one was taken alive.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack but there are two Bangladeshi groups - one associated with ISIS and one with Al Qaeda - that are also suspected.

Until recently, Bangladesh had been one of the more peaceful and secular Muslim countries, but in the last few years, Muslims assassins have carried out a spate of killings against prominent atheists, Christians and Hindus - often by hacking them to death with knives and machetes in public places

Bangladesh is also in the middle of carrying out another round of war crimes trials against participants in the 1971 genocide carried out by the Pakistani military and Islamist militias against Bengalis and others.

UPDATE (10:30 AM CST): a second Emory University student, Faraaz Hossain, has been confirmed among the dead.

UPDATE (11:30 AM CST): The State Department announced that an American citizen was killed. It is unclear if they were referring to Abinta Kabir.

Faraaz Hossain