‘They let me go because I’m Muslim’

“They pointed a gun at my chest and asked me if I was Muslim ... I begged for life ... they let me run away,” Ashraf, a senior waiter who was on duty when the terrorists stormed in, told Liton around 1am before his line got disconnected. Frantically, Sirajul Islam Liton, who used to work at the bakery until last week, called Ashraf again and again but they went unanswered. Liton told the Dhaka Tribune that he still has no idea what happened to his friend since then. During a three-and-a-half-minute  conversation, Ashraf told Liton that he was serving on the bakery’s first floor balcony when seven or eight attackers – all aged between 22 and 28 – started shooting bullets indiscriminately as they entered the place. One of the men entered the pizza shed beside the entrance, one stood guard at the door, one moved to the balcony, while four or five others entered the main hall. All of them had weapons. “There were guests – men, women, locals and foreigners – inside the main hall who were having food. The attackers waited some moments and screamed Allahu Akbar and fired blank shots indiscriminately and blasted handmade bombs,” Ashraf described to Liton about what he saw through a glass wall. As the terror unfolded, a cleaner of the bakery, Jasim, was hit by a stray bullet, while other guests also sustained bullet wounds. All the guests hid under the marble tables while a number of the bakery staff, who knew the building’s layout well, either ran to the roof or climbed over the boundary wall to run away, Ashraf said. That was when Ashraf was confronted by a gun-wielding terrorist. “I am a service man here. I am a poor guy. Please let me go,” the senior waiter pleaded. The attacker asked if Ashraf was a Muslim; when the answer was “yes” the terrorist replied: “Go ... run.” Fleeing for his life, Ashraf dashed through the lawn, jumped over a fence and crossed the bakery’s parking space before he could run to the roof of the nearby Lake View Clinic. From there, he witnessed further horror unfold at the bakery. Talking to Liton, Ashraf described how the attackers were moving around with guns, swords, machetes and pistols. “Ashraf saw them [attackers] open fire on the guests. Before a power cut-off, at least four to five seemed dead as they were lying on the floor,” Liton quoted Ashraf. Talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, Liton said: “I started calling Ashraf, Saiful and Sobuj [Saiful and Sobuj are also the bakery’s staff] soon after news of the hostage situation broke on TV. “None of them were picking up phones ... finally Ashraf picked up his phone at 12:52am. He was afraid and was speaking in a low voice.” Liton also tried calling Saiful, who was working at the pizza shed, but could not get a response. Later it turned out that Saiful was killed by the terrorists; his relatives identified him at the Combined Military Hospital. Saiful spoke to his wife just hours before the attack happened, according to his sister-in-law Johra. At the time, he described how the bakery was having a busy time as there was a good number of guests present. Imam Hossain Sobuj, another staff who was on duty during the attack, also could not be reached by Liton. “However, I spoke to his father this afternoon [Saturday]. He said Sobuj was okay. He was rescued and taken to the DB office,” said Liton.