Well-educated and hailing from wealthy families, the gunmen who killed 20 hostages in a Bangladesh cafe defy the increasingly outdated stereotype of extremists from poor backgrounds who have been radicalised in madrasahs.
Six young men were shot dead Saturday at the end of the all-night siege in a Dhaka cafe claimed by the Daish (IS) group.
One may have been an innocent bystander, but among the remaining five are a graduate of Bangladesh's leading private university, an 18-year-old student at an elite school and the son of a ruling party official.
As extremist groups such as Daish (IS) focus their recruitment efforts on disenfranchised middle class youth, government efforts to eradicate extremism become ever more complicated.
"They are all highly educated young men and from well-off families," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told AFP. Asked why they would have become extremists, Khan said: "It has become a fashion."
While the Bangladesh government has continued to deny Daish has a foothold in the country, the group claimed the attack and its associated news agency, Amaq, posted pictures of the five gunmen posing with weapons.
Similarly in militancy-ravaged Pakistan, the government denies that the international extremist network has a formal presence in the country.
But a Pakistani security official recently told AFP that authorities had busted several DaishS recruitment cells focused on a similar affluent demographic.
Taj Hashmi, a Bangladeshi who teaches security studies at the Austin Peay State University in the United States, pointed out that many of the Saudi hijackers behind the September 11 attacks were also from wealthy families.
But he says that middle-class youth have been providing religious terror groups with footsoldiers since long before the emergence of Daish.
"Marginalised and angry people from the higher echelons of society have been swelling the ranks of Islamist terrorists for the last 30-odd years," he said.
Bangladeshi authorities have so far only released code names of the cafe assailants after interrogating a gunman who was captured alive, but they have released photos of their bloodied corpses.
Friends of one confirmed his identity as 22-year-old Nibras Islam who had been studying at the Malaysian campus of Australia's Monash University before going missing in January.
A school friend remembered him as popular pupil.
"He was a good athlete whom everyone admired," the friend told AFP on condition of anonymity.
After leaving school, Nibras went to North South University (NSU), a private university which came to prominence when one former student tried to bomb the Federal Reserve Bank in New York in 2012.
'Brainwashed'
In early 2013, seven NSU students hacked atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider to death, kickstarting a campaign of murders of secular activists. At their subsequent trial, prosecutors said the students had been radicalised through the Internet.
Another of the cafe attackers was identified by multiple sources as Mir Saameh Mubasheer, who was due to sit his A-levels at Scholastica, an elite English language school, but disappeared in February.
His father Mir Hayat Kabir told the Prothom Alo daily that he had feared his son, who was 18, had been brainwashed.
"I felt in my heart that he was under someone's spell. We were good parents yet they took him away from our home," he said.
Yet another of the attackers was identified as Rohan Imtiaz who also reportedly studied at Monash in Malaysia after leaving Scholastica where his mother teaches.
His father, Imtiaz Khan Babul, is a former youth affairs secretary of the Dhaka wing of the ruling Awami League. He filed a missing person's report for his son in January.
Monash said it was aware of reports that some of the killers had studied in Malaysia but added in a statement that it "has not received, nor seen, any official confirmation" of the identities.
Only one of the five attended a madrasah, the son of a labourer who has been named as Khairul Islam Payel.
Some analysts attribute the rise in extremism in the South Asia region to the preachings of radical Saudi-trained clerics in madrassas, religious seminaries that are often the only way for poorer families to give their children an education.
But Mubashar Hasan, an expert on political Islam at Dhaka's Liberal Arts University, described that narrative as misleading.
"Many so-called experts of Bangladesh have been writing and blaming only madrassas for terrorism," said Hasan.
"Many foreign governments and agencies have spent millions in cash for projects on reforming and modernising madrassa education... What are (they) going to reform now? The liberal universities and English medium schools whose curriculums are embedded on Western enlightenment?"
Agencies
Mon Jul 04 2016
A combo photo released by Daish Bangladesh showing the 5 alleged gunmen (from left) Abu Muslim al-Benghali, Abu Rahiq al-Benghali, Abu Salma al-Benghali, Abu Muharib al-Benghali and Abu Umeer al-Benghali. - AFP Photo
Kertas kabinet wujud sektor sukan dibentang dalam tempoh sebulan - Hannah
Hannah berkata dengan data yang lebih menyeluruh melibatkan sektor industri sukan nanti, pihaknya akan mampu merangsang pertumbuhan sukan di negara ini dengan lebih baik.
Tiga Syarikat Semikonduktor umum melabur di Pulau Pinang - Kon Yeow
Tiga syarikat semikonduktor dari China menyatakan komitmen untuk membuat pelaburan baharu di Pulau Pinang.
Pindaan garis panduan lawatan: Sekolah diharap susun semula program - Fadhlina
Semua sekolah diharap dapat menyusun semula program lawatan masing-masing berikutan pindaan Garis Panduan Lawatan Murid Sekolah pada tahun lepas bagi mengukuhkan pembelajaran di luar kelas, kata Menteri Pendidikan, Fadhlina Sidek.
Kebajikan pendidikan anak-anak dijaga sehingga tamat sekolah - KPM
Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia akan memastikan kebajikan pendidikan anak-anak 10 pegawai dan anggota Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia yang terkorban dalam nahas helikopter di Lumut, Perak, terus dijaga sehingga mereka tamat persekolahan.
Chegubard ditahan polis berkaitan hantaran mengenai kasino di Forest City
Chegubard ditahan di Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah (IPD) Dang Wangi di sini berkaitan hantaran mengenai pengoperasian kasino di Forest City pada Sabtu.
Zahid minta pihak dalam BN buka "buku baharu"
Ahmad Zahid menegaskan senario politik tanah air sudah berubah dan terdapat banyak video lama dari parti lawan yang meminta pengundi menyokong DAP.
Malaysia kongsi pengalaman dalam usaha berterusan mempertahan Palestin
Delegasi negara akan berkongsikan peranan Malaysia dalam usaha berterusan mempertahankan nasib Palestin dalam Persidangan Liga Parlimen Al-Quds kelima yang berlangsung di Istanbul, Turki pada Sabtu.
Universiti Malaya mohon maaf kepada seluruh rakyat Malaysia
Jabatan Pengajian Antarabangsa dan Strategik, Universiti Malaya memohon maaf kepada seluruh rakyat Malaysia berhubung kenytaaan tidak bertanggungjawab Profesor Dr Bruce Gilley pada 24 April lalu.
Genting Malaysia nafi terbabit perbincangan
Selepas Berjaya Corporation Bhd dan Kerajaan Negeri Johor, kini Genting Malaysia Bhd pula menafikan sebarang penglibatan dalam perbincangan mengenai pengoperasian kasino di Forest City, Johor.
Berita tempatan pilihan sepanjang hari ini
Berikut adalah berita yang paling menjadi tumpuan sepanjang Sabtu, 27 April 2024.
Suhu cecah 42 celsius, Bangladesh tutup semua sekolah sehingga Sabtu
Untuk rekod, ini merupakan tahun kedua berturut-turut pihak berkuasa Bangladesh mengambil langkah sama akibat cuaca ekstrem.
Umat Islam di Bangladesh, India dan Pakistan mula berpuasa pada Selasa
Arab Saudi mengumumkan anak bulan kelihatan pada Ahad dan Isnin merupakan hari pertama Ramadan.
Bangladesh hantar pulang 330 warga Myanmar
Bangladesh menghantar pulang kira-kira 330 warga Myanmar yang mencari perlindungan di negara itu, di tengah-tengah konflik di sempadan.
Menteri Luar India, Bangladesh bincang situasi di Myanmar
Menteri Luar India dan Bangladesh mengadakan perbincangan berhubung situasi di Myanmar.
Lebih ramai Rohingya lari ke Bangladesh susulan pertempuran etnik di Myanmar
Ramai telah menyeberang ke kem pelarian Rohingya di tenggara Cox's Bazar yang menempatkan kira-kira 1.2 juta komuniti Islam dari Myanmar.
Hari pertama 2024, ratusan warga asing di Brickfields 'digempur' Imigresen
Dalam serbuan itu, seramai 370 warga asing telah diperiksa manakala lebih 100 daripada mereka didapati melakukan kesalahan di bawah Akta Imigresen 1959/63.
1,000 polis serbu 'mini Dhaka'
Seramai 1,000 anggota dan pegawai polis dari Pasukan Gerakan Am (PGA) menggempur 'mini Dhaka' di Jalan Silang di sini, pada Khamis.
Runtuhan gudang: Mangsa tiada caruman Perkeso, KSM akan ambil tindakan terhadap majikan
Kegagalan majikan mendaftar dan membayar caruman pekerja asing itu jelas melanggar Seksyen 6, Akta Keselamatan Sosial Pekerja 1969 (Akta 4).
Syarikat Malaysia dapat tawaran RM125 juta melalui misi Matrade ke India, Bangladesh
Syarikat Malaysia telah mendapat tawaran perniagaan bernilai RM125 juta melalui misi pecutan eksport (EAM) baru-baru ini ke India dan Bangladesh.
Berita antarabangsa pilihan sepanjang hari ini
Antara pelbagai berita luar negara yang disiarkan di Astro AWANI, berikut adalah antara yang paling menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari ini.