Dhaka terrorists were highly educated: Police

The terrorists who massacred people at the cafe were highly educated and most came from wealthy families.

Bangladeshi soldiers come out of an area housing a restaurant popular with foreigners after heavily armed militants attacked it on Friday night and took dozens of hostages, in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. (AP) 

DHAKA: The terrorists who massacred 20 foreigners and Bangladeshi at a popular cafe here were highly educated and most came from wealthy families, a minister said on Sunday.

"They are all highly educated young men and went to university. No one is from a madrassa," the Bangladeshi media quoted Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan as saying.

Asked why they would have become militants, The Daily Star quoted Khan as saying: "It has become a fashion."

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the massacre. The militants, who seized the cafe on Friday night, also killed two policemen.

Six of the seven attackers were shot dead. A seventh was arrested.