Reports quoted survivors as saying the militants told locals to stay out of the way, and hacked and butchered those who couldn’t recite from the Quran. DHAKA: Islamist militants armed with sharp weapons slaughtered 20 people, including a young Indian woman, at an upscale café in Dhaka before government forces stormed the building to end a 12-hour standoff on Saturday. Hours before the government announced the fatalities, the IS’s news agency Amaq said 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, had been killed. Among those killed was Tarishi Jain, 19, whose family moved to Dhaka about 20 years ago, and who was on a break from classes at University of California, Berkeley. The hostage crisis began when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka, popular with expatriates, noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre, officials said.

Source: Hindustan Times July 03, 2016 05:03 UTC