Bangladesh ruling party leader’s son identified among hostage-takers

Dhaka, July 3  One of the five gunmen who launched Friday's terror attack in Dhaka has been identified by an Awami League leader as Rohan Ibne Imtiaz, the son of another leader of the ruling party's city unit, even as the attack which claimed 20 lives -- mostly of foreigners -- was claimed by the Islamic State terror group.

Rohan has been recognised as the son of S.M. Imtiaz Khan Babul, a leader of the party's Dhaka City chapter and Bangladesh Olympic Association's deputy secretary general.

Babul lodged a police complaint on January 4 this year stating that his son was missing.

"We have identified him (Rohan) as Imtiaz Babul's son after going through the pictures that came up in the media and on Facebook," Mukul Chowdhury, a vice-president of the recently defunct Awami League's Dhaka City unit committee, told bdnews24.com.

Babul was the youth and sports secretary of the same committee Chowdhury had served.

The Awami League currently rules the country and is one of the two largest political parties of Bangladesh.

Former classmates have uploaded a photo combo in the social media of Rohan with his parents and a photo -- reportedly released by the Islamic State -- that monitoring group SITE Intelligence published on Twitter as one of the Dhaka cafe attackers.

The hostage crisis at the cafe at Dhaka's upscale Gulshan neighbourhood ended in bloodbath after army commandos raided and freed 13 hostages.

The army said six attackers had been killed in the counter-strike and that 20 hostages were found slaughtered inside the restaurant.