advertisement
A three-member team of forensic experts has dismissed reports that all 20 hostages, including an Indian, were killed by slitting of their throats. Dhaka Medical College Hospital forensic department’s Assistant Professor Md Sohel Mahmud led the three-member team to conduct the autopsies at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) on Sunday.
Responding to a query, Mahmud confirmed that none of the hostages had been killed by the slitting of their throats:
Two police officers and 20 hostages, including 18-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain, nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis and one American were killed in Bangladesh’s worst terror attack on July 1.
Thirteen hostages were rescued when security forces stormed the restaurant.
Two police officers, who were members of a team that made an early attempt to end the siege, were also killed by explosions set off by the attackers. Police officials after the raid said that 20 hostages been slaughtered.
The army and government had said that six terrorists were killed and another was captured alive. Police on Monday midnight filed a case naming six dead attackers and several unidentified persons. Forensic expert Mahmud, who had conducted most of the autopsies of the bloggers and writers hacked to death by suspected militants in Dhaka, also led the post-mortems of the cafe attackers.
He said bullets were found on the bodies of the six attackers. Splinters of explosives were also found on three of them. Mahmud added that blood for viscera test, and tooth and flesh from their bodies for DNA tests were collected yesterday.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)