Gulshan terror attack
Slain Japanese worked for metro rail project
The seven Japanese citizens, who were killed in Fridays Holey Artisan Bakery terror attack, had been working with a feasibility team of the ongoing metro rail project, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said yesterday. But their death will not affect the metro-rail project, the minister said while monitoring activities of the vigilance teams and a BRTA mobile court in Sayeedabad Bus Terminal.
Its a part of global terrorist attacks. The Japanese government has also acknowledged it. A team from the JICA has already arrived in Dhaka and Bangladesh government will discuss the situation with them, the minister said.
The seven and another Japanese were the employees of three Tokyo-based private consulting agencies engaged in the construction projects of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The eighth Japanese survived Fridays attack with a gunshot wound.
Of the deceased, five were men and two women.
According to The Japan Times, Koyo Ogasawara worked in Katahira Engineers International, Makoto Okamura, Yuko Sakai and Rui Shimodaira in Almec Corp and Hiroshi Tanaka, Nobuhiro Kurosaki, Hideki Hashimoto worked in Oriental Consultants Global.
The Japanese officials had been staying in Hotel Dhaka Garden Inn, situated 100 meters away from Banani Lake, for 8 days. It houses a gym, business centre and restaurant.
They were good human beings indeed. They did not have any extra demands what an Indian guest usually had, said Abu Taher Rony, safety and procurement officer of the hotel.
They used to wish us good morning while leaving for work and said good evening while returning to the hotel.
As they did not return on Friday and we were hearing about some Japanese being held hostages, we were worried. We also filed a general dairy with Gulshan Police Station, Rony said.
