Bangladesh has begun observing two days of national mourning after 20 hostages were slaughtered at a restaurant packed with foreigners in a major escalation of a campaign of attacks by armed groups.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina decreed the mourning period, which began on Sunday, as she vowed to drag Bangladesh back from the brink, warning of a concerted bid to turn one of the world’s most populous nations into a failed state.
Amid mass condemnation of the killings in Dhaka, whose victims included 18 foreigners, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) said it had targeted a gathering of “citizens of crusader states” on Friday night at a Western-style cafe.
As well as the 20 slain hostages whose bodies were found amid pools of blood after commandos stormed the cafe to end the siege, two policemen were also killed in the deadly attack in a high security area.