Hundreds of people gathered Saturday (1) at the site of one of the worst Islamist attacks in Bangladesh's history to mark the first anniversary of the deadly attack on an upscale Dhaka cafe.
Weeping mourners laid flowers outside the old premises of the Holey Artisan Bakery, the cafe which five young men armed with guns and knives stormed into on July 1, 2016, taking dozens hostage and killing 22 people.
Most of the victims were foreigners -- mostly Italian and Japanese national -- and many were brutally hacked to death.
Since then, the lakeside property has been cordoned off first by police and then by the owners -- the bakery itself has reopened at a new, more secure, location.
Amid heavy police security, the two-storey white-painted house was opened up for four hours on Saturday, as top political leaders, the Italian and Japanese ambassadors, and scores of tearful mourners paid tribute to the victims of the siege.
"The memories are painful and awful," Monica Chowdhury, the aunt of one of the victims, Faraaz Hossain, said.
"This is not the true face of Bangladesh. We've lost friends. I've lost my nephew. It hurts deep inside my heart," she said.
Bangladesh's cultural affairs minister Asaduzzaman Nur told reporters that the government had never imagined this kind of attack could occur in the country.
"Bangladesh has a long history of rich culture and liberal practises. This attack was also an attack on our heritage," he said.
Bangladesh is gradually "overcoming the threat" posed by Islamic extremism, he added.
Mourner Husne Ara said that while she had not lost any friends or relatives during the attack, it had shaken her deeply and changed her life.
"The anxiety I feel nowadays when my children go out can’t be expressed in words. I pray this kind of incident never repeats," she said.
The Islamic State group immediately claimed the attack but the secular government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly denied that IS has any presence in the country, instead pinning the blame on homegrown Islamist outfits.
Since the attack, the law enforcement officers have gunned down nearly 70 Islamist extremists across the country including the Bangladeshi-origin Canadian "mastermind" of the cafe siege.
A former Hertfordshire officer resigned before his misconduct ruling
‘Former Hertfordshire police officer made racist slurs against Asians'
A FORMER Hertfordshire police officer made racist comments to colleagues on multiple occasions, a misconduct panel has found.
PC Oliver Gobey, who resigned as an officer on the morning of the misconduct hearing, directed racist comments at people of Asian descent on two separate occasions.
In the first incident, he directed a “racially motivated” comment at a police sergeant to suggest they had been recruited after 9/11 because they were Asian.
Gobey was immediately challenged by PC Wallace, an “experienced officer” who had been a tutor constable for twenty years.
In a second incident, Gobey was in a police vehicle in Hitchin town centre with three colleagues. A man of Asian descent and his friends approached the officers and spoke to Wallace. The man said he was from Birmingham and asked for recommendations on places to visit.
After the man had walked away, Gobey said: “Or you have come down here to escape the honour-based violence you have caused.”Gobey was again challenged by Wallace. Gobey denied making the racist comments, but the panel concluded on the balance of probabilities that both incidents had taken place.
The panel’s report said: “They were discriminatory comments and they were his own. They were unprovoked. No one encouraged him.”
The panel also concluded that Gobey “chose to lie” about a business interest. He repeatedly failed to submit a proper application to continue part-time work for a private ambulance service and voluntary work for St John Ambulance, but continued with the latter regardless.
He also told a supervisor his business interest application had been successful, when it had not been.
In a fourth incident, Gobey “deliberately typed in random numbers” when assigned to work in the Resource Management Unit (RMU).
His figures, which were found to be wrong, came after Gobey “gave the impression to his colleagues that the work in RMY was ‘beneath’ him”.
While working there, he was heard “swearing about the work”. He was “short-tempered and ‘snappy’.” The panel’s report said: “The compilation of the figures … were far from being a simple administrative matter.
“It was essential operational information required by senior officers to decide how scarce resources would be deployed in the coming days.”
The panel found all the allegations against Gobey to be proven on the balance of probabilities, and concluded that they amounted to “serious gross misconduct” that would have led to him being sacked without notice if he had not resigned. He has also been added to the College of Policing barred list.
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)