<p>A special Bangladeshi tribunal sentenced seven of the eight suspects to death on Wednesday for their involvement in the 2016 Islamist attack on a Dhaka cafe that killed 20 people, including an Indian girl, the worst terror attack in the country's history.</p>.<p>"They shall be hanged by the neck until their death," Dhaka's Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal judge Mojibur Rahman pronounced at the crowded court complex in Old Dhaka as the convicts appeared in the dock under heavy security.</p>.<p>The convicts were found to have financed, supplied weapons, or assisted those who directly took part in the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15748466928978679329711">upmarket</gwmw> Gulshan area on July 1, 2016.</p>.<p>The judge acquitted the eighth suspect as the prosecution side could not prove his links to the attack by the outlawed Neo-Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB).</p>.<p>Investigators earlier said that all the five neo-JMB operatives who directly took part in the attack were killed the next morning in a counter-assault by the military commandos.</p>.<p>The counter-attack, however, killed an employee of the bakery and fatally wounded another who succumbed to his wounds two days later.</p>.<p>The 17 foreigners killed in the attack included nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian girl. Two Bangladeshi police officers were also killed during the siege.</p>.<p>The Indian girl, Tarishi Jain, a student of the University of California in Berkeley, was among those killed in the attack. She was in Dhaka on vacation.</p>.<p>The judge in his verdict identified Bangladeshi Canadian Tamim Chowdhury as the mastermind of the attack, who later was killed during a nationwide anti-militancy security clampdown.</p>.<p>The verdict simultaneously observed that Chowdhury tried to draw Islamic State (IS) support to militant attacks in Bangladesh.</p>.<p>The IS had immediately claimed responsibility of the Holey Artisan attack and several other subsequent militant assaults in the country.</p>.<p>But Bangladesh repeatedly declined the presence of any foreign terrorist group in the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15748466871526573525497">country attributing</gwmw> the incidents to homegrown terrorists.</p>.<p>Security analysts and officials, however, said several Bangladeshi homegrown militant groups were in touch with or influenced by international terrorist outfits.</p>.<p>The trial in the case started after the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15748466971221205356002">Counter-Terrorism</gwmw> and Transnational Crime unit submitted a charge-sheet on July 23, 2018, after two years of investigation. </p>
<p>A special Bangladeshi tribunal sentenced seven of the eight suspects to death on Wednesday for their involvement in the 2016 Islamist attack on a Dhaka cafe that killed 20 people, including an Indian girl, the worst terror attack in the country's history.</p>.<p>"They shall be hanged by the neck until their death," Dhaka's Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal judge Mojibur Rahman pronounced at the crowded court complex in Old Dhaka as the convicts appeared in the dock under heavy security.</p>.<p>The convicts were found to have financed, supplied weapons, or assisted those who directly took part in the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15748466928978679329711">upmarket</gwmw> Gulshan area on July 1, 2016.</p>.<p>The judge acquitted the eighth suspect as the prosecution side could not prove his links to the attack by the outlawed Neo-Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB).</p>.<p>Investigators earlier said that all the five neo-JMB operatives who directly took part in the attack were killed the next morning in a counter-assault by the military commandos.</p>.<p>The counter-attack, however, killed an employee of the bakery and fatally wounded another who succumbed to his wounds two days later.</p>.<p>The 17 foreigners killed in the attack included nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian girl. Two Bangladeshi police officers were also killed during the siege.</p>.<p>The Indian girl, Tarishi Jain, a student of the University of California in Berkeley, was among those killed in the attack. She was in Dhaka on vacation.</p>.<p>The judge in his verdict identified Bangladeshi Canadian Tamim Chowdhury as the mastermind of the attack, who later was killed during a nationwide anti-militancy security clampdown.</p>.<p>The verdict simultaneously observed that Chowdhury tried to draw Islamic State (IS) support to militant attacks in Bangladesh.</p>.<p>The IS had immediately claimed responsibility of the Holey Artisan attack and several other subsequent militant assaults in the country.</p>.<p>But Bangladesh repeatedly declined the presence of any foreign terrorist group in the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-3" id="gwmw-15748466871526573525497">country attributing</gwmw> the incidents to homegrown terrorists.</p>.<p>Security analysts and officials, however, said several Bangladeshi homegrown militant groups were in touch with or influenced by international terrorist outfits.</p>.<p>The trial in the case started after the <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15748466971221205356002">Counter-Terrorism</gwmw> and Transnational Crime unit submitted a charge-sheet on July 23, 2018, after two years of investigation. </p>