Dhaka cafe victims were hacked and shot dead: Forensic experts

Dhaka: A three-member team of forensic experts has dismissed reports that all 20 hostages, including an Indian, were slaughtered by slitting of their throats during the brazen assault at a cafe here by a group of gunmen.

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.

"All the deceased had sharp weapon wounds on their heads and necks. Some were hacked on their throats too," he was quoted as saying by bdnews24.

"But most of the foreign hostages were hacked to death. Bullets were found on the bodies of seven of them and they were also hacked in the head and neck," he said.

Responding to a query, Mahmud confirmed that none of the hostages had been killed by the slitting of their throats.

He said, "One of the Italian nationals and one of the Bangladeshi women had died from trauma caused by a blunt force."

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 had 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.

"We've collected the samples to determine whether these youths had taken something to stimulate excitement before carrying out the attack," he said.