The Holey Artisan Bakery Attack

The night at Holey Artisan Bakery

On the evening of July 1, 2016, five attackers entered Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic district and took diners and staff hostage. By the end of the siege, twenty hostages had been killed: three Bangladeshis, seven Japanese citizens, nine Italians and one Indian citizen, according to the victim count used in later court reporting. Two police officers also died while responding to the attack.

The direct attackers were killed when Bangladeshi security forces ended the hostage situation on the morning of July 2. Because they died at the scene, the later criminal trial did not concern whether those five men personally carried out the killings. It focused instead on surviving defendants accused of helping build, organize, finance, recruit for or otherwise support the operation.

Investigation and the anti-terrorism case

Police opened an Anti-Terrorism Act case after the attack. Investigators spent the following years tracing the network around the five men who entered the café. The prosecution theory distinguished direct participation at the scene from the wider preparation and support structure behind the attack.

This distinction became legally important. The seven men who were eventually convicted were not present as the five gunmen inside Holey Artisan Bakery. Their criminal responsibility was based on conduct such as conspiracy, recruitment, shelter, finance, training, encouragement and assistance. One additional defendant, Mizanur Rahman, was acquitted at trial and is not described by this archive as a convicted participant.

The 2019 trial verdict

On November 27, 2019, Dhaka's Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal convicted seven defendants and sentenced each to death. The tribunal also imposed fines and other penalties under the anti-terrorism law. The case then moved automatically into the High Court death-reference process while the convicted men filed their own appeals.

The seven convicted men were Jahangir Hossain, Aslam Hossain Rash, Hadisur Rahman, Rakibul Hasan Regan, Md Abdus Sabur Khan, Shariful Islam Khaled and Mamunur Rashid Ripon. Crime by Region does not use the trial outcome to erase the acquittal of Mizanur Rahman or to describe untried people as convicted conspirators.

The High Court changes the sentences

On October 30, 2023, the High Court upheld the convictions but changed all seven death sentences to imprisonment until natural death. The court found that the trial tribunal had used a provision applicable to direct perpetrators when sentencing men whose proven roles were assistance, provocation and related forms of participation.

The full 229-page High Court judgment was released in June 2025. According to reporting on the judgment, the court found beyond reasonable doubt that the seven men had significant roles in selecting or recruiting attackers and providing forms of support that enabled the operation. At the same time, the court's legal correction mattered: the men were punished for the roles actually proven against them, rather than being treated as if they had personally been the five attackers inside the café.

Further appeals remain pending

The release of the full High Court judgment opened the path for further appeals. Six of the seven convicted men filed leave-to-appeal petitions with the Appellate Division in May 2025 seeking acquittal. By July 1, 2026, those petitions still had not been heard. Defence lawyers cited the Supreme Court's backlog and the convicts' difficulty arranging senior representation as factors in the delay.

That is the current legal posture used by this archive. The seven men remain convicted and imprisoned under the High Court judgment. The case is adjudicated at trial and High Court level, but the Supreme Court process is not complete. Crime by Region therefore does not describe the appellate litigation as finished.

Victims before perpetrators

The scale and international composition of the victims made the Holey Artisan attack one of the most consequential violent crimes in modern Bangladesh. The people killed were diners and guests from Bangladesh, Japan, Italy and India. The two police officers who died during the response are also consistently included in the wider human toll of the siege.

Some public accounts discuss additional deaths connected to the broader operation, its aftermath or later custody. This page does not collapse those legally and factually distinct deaths into the twenty-hostage count. Where sources use the shorthand of 22 people killed in the attack, that generally reflects the twenty hostages plus the two police officers.

Why this file is classified as solved

The direct perpetrators were identified and died during the security operation. Seven surviving facilitators were convicted after a full anti-terrorism trial, and the High Court maintained those convictions while changing the punishment to imprisonment until death. That level of adjudication supports a Solved / Adjudicated classification for the criminal responsibility addressed in the case.

The pending Appellate Division petitions remain important. If the Supreme Court later changes the convictions or sentences, this page should be updated. Solved does not mean every appellate step is over; it means responsibility has been established through substantial judicial proceedings rather than remaining a matter of allegation alone.

Timeline

Current status

The case is Solved / Adjudicated, with further appeals pending. The High Court judgment currently governs the convictions and sentences of the seven imprisoned defendants. Six leave-to-appeal petitions remain part of the Supreme Court process in the latest reliable reporting located for this page.