Night of terror left ‘bodies in a terrible state’

Mr Gianni Boschetti’s life was saved by a single phone call. The Italian textile worker stepped out of a Dhaka cafe to speak on his mobile moments before the restaurant was stormed by Islamists who slaughtered 20 people.

His wife Claudia Maria D’Antona was not so lucky. She was trapped inside with scores of other hostages during the hours-long siege.

She shrieked his name, and then went silent. He hid in the garden for several hours but heard nothing more from D’Antona.

“The last time I heard my wife’s voice is when she called for me from the inside,” Mr Boschetti told La Repubblica.

“I was sick with fear for myself and was worried about what was happening inside, with the agonising feeling of not being able to see my wife.”

D’Antona was one of the nine Italians murdered in the Islamic State-claimed attack at the upscale Holey Artisan Bakery that began Friday night and finally ended Saturday morning when security personnel stormed the cafe.

Seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, an American and an Indian were also killed.

D’Antona’s husband hid from the attackers in the cafe garden as they corralled diners inside, and heard “haunting cries” from the terrified hostages before he was able to flee to safety.

“For hours I was hoping for a miracle, but in the end I had to accept the truth,” he said after identifying his dead wife’s body, who he said was likely killed by a bullet.

“I saw bodies in a terrible state, from beatings and sharp weapons, but not my wife’s. Maybe she didn’t suffer.”

Among the other victims were former classmates from the American International School in Dhaka who had gathered Friday for a reunion at the cafe popular among foreigners.

Abinta Kabir’s family scoured city hospitals on Saturday, finally getting word one bloodied victim was wearing the same shoes and clothes she had been last seen in.

“Blood dripping from her hair, her neck, her lips were blackened,” Kabir’s cousin Hazera Afiya wrote on Facebook.

“Her body contained wounds and bruises. She was gone.”

“She was the heart and soul of her family and was taken from us in a second.”

The relatives of foreign hostages murdered in the attack were in Dhaka Monday to take their relatives’ bodies home, many in tears as Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid wreaths on the coffins of those killed.

Two people have been arrested over the murders after six suspected jihadists were killed Saturday by commandos, in what is by far the deadliest of a spate of recent attacks in the country.