DHAKA – Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pleaded with Islamist extremists to stop killing in the name of religion Saturday after 20 hostages were killed in a siege at a Dhaka restaurant.
“Islam is a religion of peace. Stop killing in the name of the religion,” Hasina said in a televised address to the nation in which she declared two days of mourning.
“Please stop tarnishing our noble religion… I implore you to come back to the rightful path and uphold the pride of Islam.”
The prime minister, whose government has been unable to stop a growing wave of attacks on foreigners and religious minorities, urged a nationwide effort to combat extremism.
She asked people to set up “anti-terrorism committees” in districts and sub-districts across the mainly Muslim but officially secular country.
The 68-year-old premier said the people behind the attacks were trying to ruin Bangladesh.
“By holding innocent civilians hostage at gunpoint, they want to turn our nation into a failed state,” she said.

Nine Italians killed, one missing in Bangladesh attack: FM

 
Bangladeshi soldiers and police walk along a street leading to an upscale restaurant in Dhaka on July 2, 2016, following a bloody siege there by armed attackers that began on July 1

Rome- Nine Italians were killed and a 10th was listed as missing after militants attacked a restaurant in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka and took hostages, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Saturday.
The nine fatalities comprised four men and five women, Gentiloni told the press, adding that relatives had been notified. A tenth Italian was in the restaurant when the attack unfolded but was not among the 20 listed as dead, he said.

Source: AFP, 2 June 2016