Hasnat first arrestee in Gulshan attack case

Hasnat Karim, a former private university teacher detained over the Gulshan café attack, was shown arrested yesterday in a case relating to the terror incident.

He is the first arrestee in the case.

Also yesterday, Hasnat and another detainee, Tahmid Hasib Khan, were taken on a fresh remand as police claimed to have gleaned vital information from the duo during the previous remand.  

Though Hasnat was shown arrested in the case, police chose to continue interrogating Tahmid under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for suspicious movement.

In connection with the July 1 militant strike at Gulshan's Holey Artisan Bakery, the two were interrogated while on an eight-day remand that ended on Friday.

According to police, Hasnat, who taught at the NSU, was held in front of Aarong in Gulshan and Tahmid, a Canadian university student, in Bashundhara Residential Area on August 3.

Both were arrested under section 54.

Police told the media about the arrests the next day, about a month after the duo were taken into custody for questioning following the end of 11-hour siege at the upscale eatery on the morning of July 2.

Before August 4, police kept claiming that Hasnat and Tahmid were released after questioning but the families insisted that the two never returned home and could not be reached by any means.

Hasnat was now shown arrested in the case as police saw possibility of his involvement in the attack, said a top official of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Producing Hasnat before a Dhaka court yesterday, police sought permission to show him arrested in the case and appealed for a 10-day remand.

His lawyer prayed for his bail. 

Metropolitan Magistrate Imdadul Haque granted an eight-day remand for Hasnat and allowed police to show him arrested in the case.

Another Dhaka court placed Tahmid on a six-day fresh remand against a police prayer for seven days'.

In the remand prayer, Inspector Humayun Kabir of counterterrorism unit of the DMP said the former private university teacher during the first remand gave vital information about the gruesome attack and the gunmen's brutality against victims.

“He needs to be interrogated to know the names, addresses and whereabouts of the militants involved in the incident.”

In the remand prayer for Tahmid, the inspector said, “He has given vital information about the incident and he needs to be remanded for seven days for interrogation.”

On July 1, five militants stormed the bakery and held diners hostage at gunpoint. They murdered 20 hostages -- nine Italian, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladesh-born US citizen -- and two police officers who tried to end the standoff soon after it began around 8:40pm.

Hasnat and Tahmid were among the survivors.

Tahmid had gone to the restaurant with two female students of a private university.

Hasnat had gone there with his wife and two children for celebrating the birthday of one of his daughters, family members said.

Some newspapers published photographs in which Hasnat and Tahmid were seen with one of the attackers, apparently Rohan Imtiaz, on the rooftop of the bakery.

Rohan and four other militants were killed in the commando operation, launched on the morning of July 2 to end the siege. 

In the photographs, “collected from unknown sources”, Tahmid was seen holding a small firearm.

Following a prayer on Thursday, a Dhaka court gave permission to police to collect the original photographs from the news outlets to examine those at a forensic lab to check their authenticity.

Hasnat's wife Sharmina Parveen, however, said her husband is innocent and he was one of the hostages.

“Once the attackers found out we were Hasnat's family members, they [militants] took advantage of it. They knew he would not abandon us. That is why they chose him to carry out several tasks that night and used him as a human shield,” she said.

In another development, police said a top-level militant organiser, who is known as Marzan among fellow militants, looks after the information and technology affair and operational issues of New JMB, an offshoot of Jama'atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh.

“Marzan is very technologically sound,” an official of counterterrorism unit told The Daily Star yesterday.

The Gulshan attackers sent pictures and updates to this man, who is known as Marzan among fellow militants, police had claimed earlier.

Marzan later sent those pictures to Tamim Chowdhury, a suspected mastermind of the café attack.

Police told the media first about the militant leader at a briefing on Friday.