Bangladeshi Restaurant Attackers Spare Only Those Who Recite Koran

Bangladeshi forces stormed a popular restaurant in Dhaka early Saturday, ending a 10 hour siege where heavily armed militants held 35 people hostage killing 20 of them. 

Paramilitary troops who mounted the rescue operations in the morning killed six attackers and recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene, said Indian official Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury. 

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that one of the gunmen had been captured alive, reports The Times of India. 

"Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country.

"It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of Muslims are these people? They don't have any religion, their only religion is terrorism," she said.

The attack began Friday night when gunmen stormed the popular Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, a diplomatic zone, during the Ramadan holy month.

Kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who escaped, said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" as they assaulted people in the restaurant. 

Rezzaul Karim is the father of one of the survivors and he said the attackers reportedly spared people who could recite verses from the Koran. 

"The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night," Karim said.

Others like 18-year-old University of California, Berkeley student Tarushi Jain was not. 

She was visiting her father in Bangladesh, Indian officials said. 

India's Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj tweeted "I am extremely pained to share that the terrorist have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka.

I have spoken to her father Shri Sanjeev Jain and conveyed our deepest condolences.The country is with them in this hour of grief.

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 2, 2016

Emory University students Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, were among those taken hostage and killed.

The university said Abinta was from Miami and a rising sophomore at Emory’s Oxford College. Faraaz, was a junior from Dhaka who graduated from the Oxford College and was a enrolled at the university’s Goizueta Business School.

"The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family," said Emory's President James Wagner said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time."

Japan's government reports the seven Japanese hostages were killed and only one other person  survived. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni says the bodies of nine Italians have been identified among the dead in the Dhaka restaurant attack.

Others were able to escape, including one bakery worker who could not be identified. 

He told ATN News, a Bangladesh television channel, that when the first attacker entered the gate he thought it was someone taking shelter in the restaurant's doorway.

"Then I saw that he had weapons. On seeing that, I ran toward the back of the restaurant. He fired while I was running but I was not sure if he was targeting me because I did not look back," the survivor said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online. 

The attack marks an escalation in militant violence in the nation but Bangladesh's government says they are cracking down on domestic radical Islamists.

"People must resist these terrorists. My government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from Bangladesh," Hasina said.