Bangladesh memorials
Policemen sneak a look inside the Holey Artisan Bakery and the O'Kitchen Restaurant as others inspect the site after gunmen attacked, in Dhaka Adnan Abidi/ Reuters

A politician from Bangladesh's governing party has spoken out over his son's role in the terrorist attack on a café in Dhaka on 1 July. After recognising his son in pictures of the attackers published in the media, Imitaz Khan Babul, leader of the Awami League Party's Dhaka City chapter, has spoken of his shock over the incident.

Babul, who is also the deputy secretary general of the Bangladesh Olympic Association, has said that he had "no inkling" about his son's radicalisation. Bangladesh has been in shock after it was revealed that the attackers who killed 20 people at the Holy Artisan Bakery were from educated and wealthy families.

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Babul told the BBC: "I am stunned to learn this, dumbfounded. My son used to pray five times a day from a young age. But we never imagined this. There was nothing at home, no books or anything to indicate he was leaning that way, so we had no inkling."

Babul's son was killed by Bangladeshi security officials when they stormed the café. The Islamic State (Isis) terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, however, the Bangladeshi government has denied this, stating that the attackers had no links to them and that some of them appeared to have links to locally banned militant group, Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh.

Babul has now warned that he believes young Bangladeshi men are being radicalised online. The attackers had been missing from their homes for six months before they appeared to commit the attack in Dhaka According to a police official, Babul's son told his family he was going for a "pilgrimage" and then never returned.

Babul said: "When I was searching for my son I found that many other boys are missing. Well-educated boys from good, educated families, children of professionals, government officers. I used to share my sorrows with them. We do not know how this is happening."

Many have taken to social media in the aftermath of the attack to comment on the background of the attackers.