Recent attacks blamed on radical Islamists in Bangladesh

DHAKA: Gunmen have stormed a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka, taking hostages while engaging security forces in a gunbattle that has left two officers dead, authorities say. Some people in the restaurant managed to run to the rooftop and escape, but one witness says about 35 people are still trapped inside, including some foreigners.

The hostage crisis was unusual for Bangladesh, but comes after several years of deadly attacks by radical Islamists targeting secular writers, publishers and members of Bangladesh’s minority religious communities. Here is a list of those attacks, starting in 2013:

— Feb. 15, 2013: Assailants wielding machetes kill secular blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider after he posts comments online about religious fundamentalism.

— Feb 27, 2015: At least two assailants attack Bangladeshi-American blogger and writer Avijit Roy with meat cleavers, killing him and injuring his wife on a crowded street inDhaka, the capital. A previously unknown group, Ansar Bangla 7, which intelligence officials believe is part of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, claims responsibility.

— March 30, 2015: Three men use meat cleavers to hack 26-year-old blogger Washiqur Rahman Babu to death in Dhaka. Bystanders chase down two of the attackers, but a third escapes. The captured suspects say they are students at Islamic schools and were ordered to commit the crime. Police have been unable to determine who gave the order.

— May 12, 2015: Four men with meat cleavers kill online atheist activist and science magazine editor Ananta Bijoy Das as he leaves his home in the northeastern city of Sylhet. Police arrest a newspaper photographer and two others. Al-Qaida on the Indian subcontinent, which is believed to be affiliated with the Ansarullah Bangla Team, claims responsibility.

— Aug. 8, 2015: A fourth blogger, Niloy Chottopadhay, is killed by men who enter hisDhaka apartment, posing as potential tenants, and assault him with cleavers. The Ansarullah Bangla Team claims responsibility in an email, though the authenticity of the message has not been confirmed.

— Sept. 28, 2015: Three assailants on a motorcycle gun down Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter. The Sunni extremist group Islamic State claims responsibility, according to the terror monitoring group SITE. Officials reject the claim and accuse local Islamist groups of attempting to destabilize the country. A month later, police arrest four suspects who say they were hired by “a big brother” to attack “a white man” to create chaos in the country, according to authorities.