Bangladesh’s Prime Minister on Monday visited a stadium where the bodies of the victims from the weekend attack in Bangladesh’s capital were taken, as security officials search for evidence and the possible masterminds behind the attack.The incident that began as a hostage-taking on an upscale restaurant left 28 dead, including six attackers and 20 of the hostages. The government has denied the Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility for the attack.

Police have released photographs of the bodies of five attackers, along with their first names- Akash, Badhon, Bikash, Don and Ripon. The men belonged to the banned domestic group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB, and their families hadn’t heard from them in months, according to police. Asked whether they might also have had Islamic State ties, Police Inspector General A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque said authorities were investigating that possibility.

Despite the police saying IS links were being investigated, the home minister refuted the possibility that the Islamic State group directed the attack from abroad. The government says the extremist Sunni Muslim group based in Syria and Iraq has no presence in the country, and in the past has suggested that any claims of responsibility for violence waged in the South Asian country are simply opportunistic attempts at grabbing global attention.

“They are all Bangladeshis. They are from rich families, they have good educational background,” Khan said of the attackers. One surviving suspect was detained when paramilitary forces ended the 10-hour standoff Saturday morning, and authorities said he was being interrogated.The siege marked an escalation in the militant violence that has hit Bangladesh with increasing frequency. Most of the attacks in the past several months have involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed her political opponents of trying to create chaos by backing domestic militants.“Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such an act,” Ms. Hasina said Saturday. “They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism.”The 20 hostages who were killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, three Bangladeshis and one Indian teenager. Two police officers were killed by the attackers, and 13 people were rescued when commandos stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery on Saturday morning. Another 25 officers and one civilian were wounded, and some of the rescued hostages had injuries. There was no information on their conditions.

The attack was the worst in the recent series of attacks by radical Islamists in the moderate, mostly Muslim nation of 160 million. Unlike the previous attacks, the assailants were well-prepared and heavily armed with guns, bombs and sharp objects that police later said were used to torture some of the 35 captives.That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh’s capital signalled a change in tactics. The restaurant overlooking a lake serves Spanish food and is patronized by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighbourhood where most of the foreign embassies are located.

The hostages were asked to recite verses from the Quran, to prove themselves Muslim, according to a witness. Those who passed were allowed to eat. Those who failed were tortured and slain.Western embassies issued travel warnings to their citizens, advising those in the country to be vigilant and avoid places frequented by foreigners in the diplomatic zone. The U.S. Embassy also urged its citizens and personnel to avoid traveling on foot or in open vehicles exposed to potential attackers.

In its claim of responsibility, the Islamic State group said its operatives had targeted the citizens of “Crusader countries” in the attack, warning that citizens of such countries would not be safe “as long as their warplanes kill Muslims.” The statement was circulated in a manner consistent with past IS claims of responsibility.

Ahead of holiday

The blast hit the Karrada district early in the day as the area was packed with shoppers ahead of this week’s holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.It came a week after Iraqi security forces recaptured Fallujah from IS, leaving Mosul as the only Iraqi city under the jihadist group’s control.The bombing also wounded more than 180 people, security officials said.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the site of the attack and vowed “punishment” for the perpetrators, his office said.Abadi’s office later announced three days of mourning for the victims.The blast set buildings ablaze, and firemen were still working to extinguish them some 12 hours later.
Men carried the bodies of two victims out of one burned building and a crowd of people looked on from the rubble-filled street as emergency personnel worked at the site.

A member of the civil defence forces said that it would take “a number of days” to recover the bodies of the victims.Hussein Ali, a 24-year-old former soldier, said six workers at his family’s shop were killed, their bodies so badly burned they could not be identified.”I will return to the battlefront. At least there, I know the enemy so I can fight him. But here, I don’t know who I’m fighting,” Ali told AFP.IS issued a statement claiming responsibility for the suicide bombing, saying it was carried out by an Iraqi as part of “ongoing security operations”.

– ‘Cowardly and heinous act’ -The jihadist group said the blast targeted Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority, whom the Sunni extremists consider heretics and frequently attack in Baghdad and elsewhere.UN Iraq envoy Jan Kubis condemned the “cowardly and heinous act of unparallelled proportions,” calling on authorities to bring those responsible to justice.Officials said another explosion in the Shaab area of northern Baghdad killed at least one person and wounded four on Sunday, but the cause of the blast was disputed.US National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price said the attacks “only strengthen our resolve to support Iraqi security forces as they continue to take back territory” from IS.

Bombings in the capital have decreased since IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in June 2014, with the jihadists apparently occupied with operations elsewhere.But the group has struck back against Iraqi civilians after suffering military setbacks.A video posted on social media showed men — apparently angry at the government’s failure to prevent the carnage in Karrada — throwing rocks at what was said to be Abadi’s convoy.A bystander could also be heard cursing at Abadi in another video.But the premier struck a conciliatory tone over anger directed towards him.

“I understand the emotional feelings and actions that occurred in a moment of sadness and anger,” Abadi said in a statement.In May, Baghdad was rocked by a series of blasts that killed more than 150 people in seven days.- IS defeat in Fallujah -With thousands of vehicles moving in and out of the city each day, such bombings are difficult to prevent.But there are also flaws in security measures in the city, especially the continued use of fake bomb detectors at checkpoints years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.

Iraqi forces completely recaptured Fallujah, a city 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, from the jihadists a week ago.Anti-government fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014 and it later became one of IS’s main strongholds in the country.IS’s defeat there was compounded by a devastating series of air strikes targeting jihadist forces as they sought to flee the Fallujah area.Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft destroyed hundreds of IS vehicles and killed dozens of fighters in two days of strikes against jihadist convoys after the end of the Fallujah battle, officials said.

With Fallujah retaken, Iraqi forces are now setting their sights on second city Mosul, the last major population centre held by IS in Iraq.In addition to Mosul, IS still holds significant territory in Nineveh province, of which it is the capital, as well as areas in Kirkuk to its west and Anbar to its south.The jihadist group seized control of large parts of Iraq and Syria in mid-2014, declaring an Islamic “caliphate”, committing widespread atrocities and organising or inspiring a series of deadly attacks in Western cities and across the Middle East.