The deaths in the militant attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh were at once random, and not so random.
The 20 hostages who died in the siege had reasons to be in the developing South Asian nation. They were construction consultants from Japan, working on a Japanese government-funded infrastructure project. They were Italian businesspeople in textiles, a major industry in a country that is a center for low-cost production. They were three students from American universities who had ties to Bangladesh.
Their lives intersected on a Friday night at the western-style restaurant at Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for the relatively well-heeled in the Gulshan diplomatic enclave in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. By Saturday morning, after security forces stormed the restaurant to end a 10-hour siege, they were dead. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had targeted citizens of what it called “Crusader countries.” Their stories paint a portrait of innocent lives lost in this deadly militant attack.
Textile Industry Figures From Italy
Nadia Benedetti’s family remembers her as someone who moved with ease in the world. Her work, including collecting orders for European and U.S. fashion companies, took to places as far as China, Australia, and, her latest business address, in Dhaka. Benedetti, 52, headed a company with 1,800 employees. But beyond workplace success, friends and family remember her for other things, especially a sunny disposition, her thoughtfulness and a love for song. She adored singing karaoke style. A niece also recalled how she would send home early from work employees who were fasting during the month of Ramadan, since they looked tired.
An Italian woman who is friends with an Italian diner who survived the Dhaka restaurant attack says three university students were dining outside in the garden when the attackers saw them and ordered them inside, where they were killed.
Agnese Barolo was dining with the Italian ambassador at the embassy a few blocks from the restaurant when the attack began Friday night. Survivor Gianni Boschetti phoned the embassy to tell them the attack was underway. Boschetti survived because he had just gone outside to talk on the phone and hid behind the gardens’ bushes. Barolo says the attackers ordered the students to go inside and “they started to cry, they didn’t want to” go inside. Students Tarushi Jain, Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain were killed.
Barolo’s son-in-law had been the soccer coach of Kabir and Hossain. Corriere says Barolo is married to an adviser to the Bangladesh’s premier. Her friend, Claudia D‘Antona, died in the attack. Corriere says Boschetti and D’Antona were married last year at the Italian embassy, where a big party was held.
D'Antona worked in the clothing and textiles, as did Simona Monti, who was five months pregnant with a boy she planned to name Michelangelo. Maria Riboli, Marco Tondat and Cristian Rossi, a business manager who lived in Feletto Umberto, northern Italy, also worked in the textiles industry, a crucial sector of Bangladesh’s economy.
— By Frances D'Emilio in Rome
Consultants From Japan
Dhaka, a city of 7 million, has some serious traffic congestion, so it’s no surprise that transport is a key area of Japanese government aid in Bangladesh.
The work brought together eight technical experts, from three Tokyo-based consulting firms, who were eating together when the attack began at 9:20 p.m. Two women and five men died. Only one made it out alive.
Tomaoki Watanabe, who was hospitalized after being shot, was one of four employees from ALMEC Corp., a transportation consultancy with offices in Manila, Hanoi, Jakarta and Ulan Bator, according to its website. The other three—Yuko Sakai, Rui Shimodaira and Makoto Okamura—perished.
