The 20 hostages who died in the siege had reasons to be in the developing South Asian nation.
They were construction consultants from Japan, working on a Japanese government-funded infrastructure project. They were Italian business people in textiles, a major industry in a country that is a center for low-cost production. They were two students from an American university who had ties to Bangladesh.
Their lives intersected at the western-style restaurant at Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular hangout for the relatively well-heeled in the Gulshan diplomatic enclave in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
By the morning, after security forces stormed the restaurant to end a 10-hour siege, they were dead.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had targeted citizens of what it called "Crusader countries." Their stories paint a portrait of innocent lives lost in the world's latest militant attack.
CONSULTANTS FROM JAPAN
Dhaka, a city of 7 million, has some serious traffic congestion, so it's no surprise that transport is a key area of Japanese government aid in Bangladesh.The work brought together eight technical experts, from three Tokyo-based consulting firms, who were eating together when the attack began at 9.20 pm. Two women and five men died. Only one made it out alive.
Okamura's father, Komakichi Okamura, told Japanese media outside his home today that his 32-year-old son's death "is unbearable as a parent." He recalled their last words: "He said, 'I am leaving now.' and I said to him to be careful. That was the last conversation I had with him on the telephone."
Another victim, Koyo Ogasawara, worked for Katahira & Engineers International, a transportation consultancy that has worked on projects in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The other three were working for Oriental Consultants Global, which is part of a Japanese project to build three bridges for the widening of the national highway from Dhaka to Chittagong. Two of them have been identified as Nobuhiro Kurosaki and Hiroshi Tanaka.
"We feel very indignant toward the perpetrators, because these people were working hard for the development of Bangladesh," said Shinichi Kitaoka, the president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency. He pledged to strengthen security precautions while continuing to contribute to the country's development.
STUDENTS FROM AMERICA
The attack reached halfway around the world to the southeastern US state of Georgia, where Emory University said two of its students were among the victims.One, Faraaz Hossain, came from Dhaka, and the other, Abinta Kabir, was from Miami, Florida, and visiting family and friends in Bangladesh.
"We are honestly shocked," said fellow student Kereisha Harrell, 20. "A lot of us are not ready to talk about it. But we were a family. It hit us hard. There are a lot of people very upset. We're just trying to support each other through this."
Kabir was entering Emory's Oxford College as a sophomore, and Hossain was a graduate of Oxford College and a student at the university's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta.
Both were active on the Student Activities Committee executive board, and Harrell said they were also part of an honor society that required a GPA of 3.9 or higher.
"The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family," the university said in a statement.
