Another hideout at Shewrapara

Some of the suspected Gulshan café attackers and their associates might have stayed at a Pashchim Shewrapara flat in the capital and moved to another flat in Bashundhara Residential Area just two days before the bloody siege, said police officials.

The militants might have gathered and planned the attack while staying at the “dens”, said a Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) official.

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In the early hours of yesterday, police picked up the owner of the Shewrapara flat, Nurul Islam, 68, for allegedly not collecting tenants' information and sheltering militants.

The police move came hours after the arrest of Gias Uddin Ahsan, dean of North South University's School of Health and Life Sciences, and two others for renting out a flat to suspected Gulshan café attackers in Bashundhara Residential Area and withholding tenants' information from the police.

Later in the day, Inspector Humayun Kabir of the counterterrorism unit of the DMP, also the investigation officer of the case, produced the four before a Dhaka Court, showing them arrested under Section-54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The court granted eight-day remand for each of them following a 10-day remand appeal.

In the remand prayer, the police officer said, “The accused were shown arrested as it was being suspected that they might have sheltered the militants and were involved in the incident [Gulshan attack].

“A 10-day remand is necessary to interrogate them to know about their involvement [in the crime] and to trace out and arrest other terrorists,” he added.

He also said, “Nurul Islam rented out his flat to the militants. It appears that the militants might have carried out the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery when they were staying in the flat.”

He also claimed to have secret information that the militants might have stayed at the flat of the NSU teacher Gias Uddin.

“The militants fled the flats after the attack, leaving behind their belongings,” he added in the remand prayer.

Police claimed to have recovered a hand grenade and three black dresses of militants from the flat at Shewrapara.

During the court proceedings, a defence lawyer for the NSU teacher opposed the remand prayer, saying his client had been staying in his Mohammadpur flat and had not been to his Bashundhara flat. His nephew Alam Chowdhury, one of the arrestees, used to negotiate the deal for renting out the flat.   

A defence lawyer for Nurul told the court that his client had provided information about his tenants to the local Mirpur Police Station.  

Our correspondents visited the two flats yesterday and had accounts of the people in the neighbourhoods.

They said four youths, introducing themselves as students, rented a flat on the ground floor of a building at Pashchim Shewrapara in February.

They hardly used to come out, said one neighbor. They were not seen after the Eid, added the person.

In the early hours of Wednesday, police brought a handcuffed man to the flat and searched it in presence of Nurul, the flat owner. Later, the law enforcers and the handcuffed man left.

However, police came again yesterday and took Nurul with them, said several neighbours.

Talking to The Daily Star, a neighbour said the Bashundhara flat was rented by a family having children. Perhaps, the family left and the militants moved in, he added.

There was no security camera on the ground floor of the building in the Bashundhara Residential Area.

“We have just decided to install security cameras at all buildings and notify all the flat owners not to rent out apartments to bachelors,” he told The Daily Star.

On July 1, armed militants attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan's diplomatic zone and killed 20 hostages -- nine Italian, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladesh-born US citizen. Two police officers were also killed.

ANOTHER MAN REMANDED

A Dhaka court yesterday placed another man, who is believed to be a close friend of a suspected Gulshan café attacker Shafiqul Islam, on a five-day remand.

Police arrested the man, Milon Hossain, at Ashulia, on the outskirt of the city, on Saturday.

Shafiqul used to teach at a kindergarten school at Ashulia for long. Milon had managed him the job, said police sources.