Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, 1 July 2019 – The Milan City Council, meeting today, at the opening of its session commemorated the 24 victims of the Dacca massacre of 1 July 2016, in the presence of the families of the fallen Italians, representatives of the institutions, of the Association of Victims of Terrorism, of ANPI, Gariwo and the Consul General of Bangladesh in Milan Iqbal Ahmed.

The speech by the President of the City Council, Lamberto Bertolé

Dear family members of our compatriots who fell in the terrible massacre that occurred in Dacca in 2016.

Mr. Consul General of Bangladesh in Milan.

Representatives of the Institutions and of the Association of Victims of Terrorism, dear guests, Anpi and Gariwo.

Welcome to Milan, welcome to the home of the Milanese.

I am honored to welcome you today to this symbolic place of our democracy and our community.

Today the whole of Milan, three years after this terrorist attack which took place on 2016 July XNUMX in Dacca, Bangladesh, is symbolically rallying around the families of the victims, the municipalities and the injured nations.

24 people lost their lives in that attack, 22 were civilians: women and men from different countries, different cultures, different religions: however, all equally enemies to be exterminated, according to the perverse and criminal logic of the attackers.

Nine of the victims were our compatriots. They were workers, entrepreneurs, people involved in the many local companies that work closely with Italian companies, especially in the textile sector. Along with them fell civilians and policemen from Bangladesh, citizens of Japan and other countries: all sacrificed in the name of senseless and absurd hatred and blind fanaticism.

Faced with unacceptable tragedies such as the attack in Dacca, as a country and as people we sink into a feeling of anguish, pain and anger. Fear, however, must not win, we must not lock ourselves away. Our fellow citizens who also develop their professional activity and their business on other continents are also a bulwark of the highest values ​​of our society, characterized by freedom, democracy and peace.

Their example is precious for our young people, a model of industriousness and resourcefulness and also of trust in relationships and exchanges between different peoples and cultures. The memory of your loved ones keeps high the values ​​and dignity of our conception of society, based on respect for human life, on freedom and peaceful confrontation between men and the peaceful coexistence of faiths.

From their sacrifice, as always from the sacrifice of the innocent, our political and civil action must begin to counter the barbarity of a violence, that of terrorism, which tends to be without borders. With his example, the individual also brings an idea of ​​civilization to the world, as your loved ones have done and as Gabriele Nissim will remind us in his speech.

You will not forget them and we will not forget them, because they have done the good of our society, whose well-being also owes so much to what our companies build and develop abroad.

Oggi qui a Palazzo Marino ci raccogliamo nel ricordo di quei nostri connazionali e delle altre vittime di quella strage. Insieme all’omaggio ai caduti, voglio esprimere, a nome del Consiglio Comunale di Milano, tutta la nostra solidarietà e il nostro affetto ai loro familiari.

The homage we owe to their sacrifice and the solidarity with their families we ideally extend to all the victims of terrorism and violence in the world. A terrorism that unfortunately continues to strike today, as demonstrated by last Thursday's attack in Tunis or the one that occurred in Nigeria two weeks ago where 30 people were killed.

I conclude by thanking everyone present for being here today: yours is not just a personal tragedy and today with this ceremony we want to testify that Milan will always be close to you and at your side.

Thanks again.