The wealthy, educated jihadi of the future?

Islamic radicalism is on the rise in Bangladesh, with a spate of grisly, guerilla-style attacks in recent months targeting religious minorities, homosexuals, and secular writers. But on Friday, bloodshed reached a deadly pinnacle when at least five militants laid siege to Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular eatery in the heart of capital city Dhaka, killing two policemen and 20 hostages, and reportedly torturing captives who failed to recite from the Quran. Among the dead are citizens of Bangladesh, Italy, Japan, India, and the United States, with fatalities including a pregnant woman, a teenager, and three college students.

Islamic State (ISIS) swiftly claimed responsibility for the attack, and the claim was later confirmed by jihadist-monitoring SITE Intelligence Group. But Bangladeshi officials say this is impossible, and claim ISIS has no presence in the country. According to local police, the attackers belonged to a native banned group of Islamic fundamentalists.

“They have no connections with the Islamic State,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told The Guardian.

Until now, Islamic attacks in Bangladesh have been quick and dirty: gangs of masked men on motorcycles with meat cleavers. But a sophisticated, hostage-style attack in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of the country’s capital city? For Bangladesh, this is new.

Local police say the young men responsible for the Friday’s attack defy the stereotypical profile of a religious radical as isolated, disenfranchised, or unemployed—a desperate person in need of a cause. At least four of the Dhaka attackers were from affluent families, led privileged lifestyles, and received elite educations at top schools.

“It is difficult to imagine how they were radicalized,” Benazir Ahmed, head of the country’s paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion, said of the attackers, describing them as “flamboyant young men” from wealthy families.

What made radical Islam attractive to these men? Or what made these men attractive to Islamic radicals?

“The shock value for the radical groups of recruiting educated, affluent people is huge,” said Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, a former Indian diplomat and policy expert on Bangladesh for the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. “The government will never suspect them. The intelligence agencies will never suspect them. Because these boys were never under any kind of surveillance”

According to a recent BBC report, one attacker was the son of Imtiaz Khan, a prominent politician with the ruling party of Bangladesh. “I am stunned to learn this, dumbfounded. There was nothing at home, no books or anything, to indicate he was leaning that way,” Khan told BBC, adding, “Perhaps [he was radicalized] through the internet.”

Some experts say Bangladesh is an ideal environment to soak up new ISIS recruits. “The bottom line is, Bangladesh has plenty of local, often unaffiliated militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in ISIS’s name,” Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington D.C., told Reuters. He said ISIS attacks claimed in Bangladesh outnumber those in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Bangladesh is officially billed as a moderate Islamic nation, but the global community is increasingly concerned about the country’s ability to handle the bloody uptick in Islamic extremism.