Soumir Baroi held hostage inside one of the bathrooms at
Holey Artisan Bakery, which is witnessing a hostage situation, managed to establish contact with his brother Gopal via texts.
As gunmen held hostage dozens of people inside the popular hangout
for foreigners in the capital's diplomatic zone of Gulshan, Gopal tried
to reach his elder brother Soumir, who works at the restaurant, over
phone around 9:30pm.
After failing to reach him on one of his numbers, Gopal managed to reach Soumir on another number, which he did not pick up.
At 10:00pm: In reply to Gopal’s text, Soumir wrote, “Me and nephew are fine. Locked in the bathroom”.
At 1:44am: Soumir texted again “What is the situation outside?” To
which Gopal replied “Rab is overlooking everything. They are doing all
they can do, so that you all are not harmed”.
At 1:45am: Soumir texted again “Chhoto Mamun (his identity could not
be known) knows where our toilet is. We are there. If you can, please
break the wall and take us”. Gopal replied: “Switch on your Facebook.
Please give me one picture”.
At 2:15am they exchanged a series of texts. Gopal wrote, “Do they know you are in the toilet?”
Soumir: “Yes”.
Gopal: “Are they saying anything to you?”
Soumir: “They don’t want anything. They have locked us”.
Gopal: “Dada please sit on a side of the toilet. They may fire”.
Soumir: “Yes we are”.
At 4:58am: Gopal asked: “Dada how are you now?”
Soumir: “Yeah”.
At 5:28am: Gopal texted: “We all pray for you so that you come back safe and sound”.
Soumir replied: “Yes”.
Again at 5:48am: Soumir still trapped inside texted: “May be Rab will
enter now. Please come to the toilet soon. It is painful here”.
Gopal replied: “I have told a major about you all”.
At 6:22am: Gopal texted his brother: “Please say how you are now?”
There has been no contact for a long time now. At 7:40am an offensive
was launched. Gopal has been trying to reach his brother for a while.
At one point, he managed to get through the line, but there was no
answer.
Operation Thunderbolt ended around 9:30am bringing the hours long
hostage situation to an end. However, the fate of those trapped inside
could not be known.
