DHAKA, Bangladesh — Police said Tuesday that security forces may have mistakenly shot dead a hostage during a siege of a Dhaka cafe on the weekend, believing he was one of the attackers.
Saiful Islam, a senior police official in Dhaka, said Saiful Islam Chowkidar — a pizza maker at the Holey Artisan restaurant — was among six men who were killed Saturday when officers stormed the eatery to end a 12-hour siege.
The revelation comes as police were continuing to hunt for members of a domestic Islamist group they suspect helped the gunmen attack.
Officials also were questioning families of the militants for clues as to what turned them into killers.
Gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone late on Friday and killed 20 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the United States.
The Bangladeshi government has dismissed ISIS' claim of responsibility and suggested that Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh — an outlawed domestic group — may have played a role.
