On the night of 1 July 2016, at 21:20 local time,[2] five militants took hostages and opened fire on the Holey Artisan Bakery[3] in Gulshan Thana jurisdiction in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

[4] The assailants entered the bakery with crude bombs, machetes, pistols, and took several dozen hostages (foreigners and locals).

[5] 29 people were killed, including 20 hostages (17 foreigners and 3 locals), two police officers, five gunmen, and two bakery staff.

[6][7] As the police were unsuccessful in breaching the bakery and securing the hostages, they set up a perimeter along with the Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh.

Very early on 2 July (around 03:00), it was decided that the Bangladesh Armed Forces would launch a counter-assault named Operation Thunderbolt.

[8] The assault was led by the 1st Para-commando Battalion, an elite force in the Bangladesh Army under the leadership of operational commander Brigadier General Mujibur Rahman, and began their raid at 07:40.

[16] Since 2013, Muslim-majority Bangladesh has experienced an increase in Islamist attacks on religious minorities, secularist and atheist writers and bloggers, LGBT rights activists and liberal-minded Muslims.

[24][28] DMP Commissioner, Asaduzzaman Mia, and several officers struck inside and opened fire on the militants in an attempt to rescue civilians from the site.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was briefed by the Commissioner and she instructed him to move away with his men and informed him the Army Chief Belal Shafiul Huq was on his way from Sylhet.

A group of women wearing hijabs were released by the attackers; they offered a young Bangladeshi man, Faraaz Hossain, the opportunity to leave as well.

[24][30][31] Pictures allegedly taken from inside the restaurant were circulated on Twitter by pro-ISIL accounts and show several bodies and pools of blood on the floor.

The planning of the Operation was finalized at a meeting between the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Armed forces chiefs and top officials of different law enforcement agencies.

[3][39] Two of the hostages, Tahmid Hasib Khan and Hasnat Karim, were taken by police for questioning, and subsequently vanished amidst confusion about whether they had been released or not.

[42] Among the dead were seven Japanese citizens – five men and two women – who were associated with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

[58] The Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Giro had attended a meeting in Bangladesh and visited the attack site.

The plane carrying the bodies landed on 5 July at Ciampino Military Airbase south of Rome, Italy.

A ceremony for the repatriation of the bodies were held at a stadium in Dhaka, which was attended by the Japan's Ambassador to Bangladesh, Masato Watanabe.

One of the survivors stated that an Indian woman, identified as Tarishi Jain, who had been badly injured was moaning in agony but a perpetrator took a sword to her and killed her without mercy.

[62] An initial report from Amaq News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, said the group claimed it had killed 24 people and wounded 40 others.

[64] According to The New York Times, citing Bangladesh police, the attackers were named Akash, Badhon, Bikash, Don, and Ripon.

[65] Nevertheless, the home minister of Bangladesh, Asaduzzaman Khan, stated that the perpetrators belonged to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and were not affiliated with ISIL.

[66][67] Bangladeshi politicians also blamed opposition groups, like those within the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, of plotting to destabilize the country by supporting Islamic extremists like the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.

[68][69] Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's political adviser Hossain Toufique Imam claimed that Bangladesh authorities who monitored social media saw several messages on Twitter on Friday (1 July 2016) saying there would be an attack; however, police believed that the attack would target embassies or major hotels and restaurants instead.

It was revealed that Nibras was following a Twitter account belonged to an Islamic State propagandist named Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who was arrested in Bangalore in 2015.

[74] On 6 July 2016, a video was released by IS from Syria through SITE intelligence website, where three Bengali speakers warned the Bangladeshi Government saying "What you witnessed in Bangladesh...was a glimpse.

[80] On 27 August 2016, Tamim Chowdhury, the supposed mastermind of the attack, was killed in a raid on an IS safehouse in Dhaka by Bangladeshi forces.

[83] On the night of 13 January 2017, Bangladeshi counterterrorism forces arrested Jahangir Alam, man suspected of being a key planner of the attack in Tangail District.

[84] In December 2018, the trial of eight people accused of being Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh who were suspected of helping plan and supply weapons for the attack opened before a special tribunal in Dhaka.

[97] Hasanul Haq Inu, the Information Minister, reasoned that "Peace TV is not consistent with Bangladeshi society, Bangladesh's constitution, our culture, customs and rituals".

[126] After the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the sculpture was demolished on 29 August and replaced with posters of the banned Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh.