Fewer Foreigners on Streets of Dhaka

Latin American Herald Tribune

DHAKA – Concrete blocks, barbed wire, armored cars, checkpoints and plainclothes officers are widespread across Dhaka’s diplomatic heart Gulshan, whose streets and public spaces have emptied of foreigners following the nearly month-old terrorist massacre at an upscale restaurant in the area. 

Since 2013, Bangladesh has seen a spate of targeted attacks against minority groups which intensified in 2015, but it was the early July restaurant attack by a terrorist cell loyal to the Islamic State group that is proving to be decisive.

The July 1-2 hostage crisis claimed 22 lives, mostly foreigners, who were also tortured before being killed.

Marking a watershed moment in the security of the Bangladeshi capital, the attack is leading to a transformation of the city, reminiscent of Pakistan’s Islamabad after the 2008 truck-bomb suicide attack on the upscale Marriott hotel.

Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen Restaurant, the cafe that came under militant siege in Dhaka, used to be a hotspot for expats and the Bangladeshi elite: it was a welcome respite for foreigners living a life of relative isolation in Bangladesh.

Growing numbers of Westerners in the country – usually aid workers or businessmen from the thriving textile industry – are now seen leaving the country each day, while few incoming faces from that part of the world are seen at the city airport’s arrivals terminal.

“I decided I couldn’t stay at home as if in prison, with the curtains drawn at such and such hour, and feeling paranoid at any sound on the staircase or the street,” Estela Botello, a designer from Madrid who was working for a textile company here, told EFE about her decision to return to Spain this week.

Others have either been repatriated by their firms, are speeding up projects, or have been temporarily moved to safer places in the region.

Meanwhile the embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada monitoring the situation following the Islamist surge have declared the country a “non-family duty station.”

Westerners who remain face several restrictions on a daily basis.

“We have been advised not to go walking or cycling in the streets, or hire three-wheeler rickshaws (a local mode of transport); also to vary our travel routes by car. We can go to the main hotels and supermarkets but preferably before 3 p.m.,” said a British national working at an educational center, who did not wish to be named.

Beefed up security measures are conspicuous across the affluent Gulshan neighborhood, which in addition to embassies houses several multinational firms, but now looks akin to a labyrinth with streets closed to traffic and police personnel everywhere.

“Life is now about going from work to home, and from home to work. They tell you: ‘stay away a few months, and this will stabilize.’ But many have left already, and others are planning to go too,” another Spanish textile employee remarked.

However, as an omnipresent topic of discussion, the prevailing tension is helping strengthen bonds within the expat community; their once-active social life, no longer feasible in the city’s public spaces at night, has turned to parties at home.