Holey Artisan Attack: Tahmid cleared

A Dhaka court yesterday cleared Tahmid Hasib Khan and Hasnat Karim of the charges brought against them under Section 54 in connection with the July 1 Gulshan terror attack.

The court, however, asked the law enforcers to press charges against Tahmid, a Canadian university student, for hiding information.

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Hasnat, a former private university teacher, is still in prison as police made him an accused in the July 1 terror attack case.

Tahmid was released on bail on October 2 from Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.

Earlier on September 28, Humayun Kabir, inspector of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit of the DMP, appealed to the court that the two be cleared of the charges brought against them under Section 54.

He, however, sought the court's permission for charging Tahmid for hiding information.

In the petition, police said they found no evidence of Tahmid's link to the Gulshan attackers or other militants.

The petition also mentioned that Tahmid had promised DMP officials of the CTTC Unit that he would make a statement on the incident but he didn't communicate with them even though he was given two notices.

On July 1, militants killed 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners, at Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital's Gulshan. Two police officials were also killed. The siege ended the next morning through a commando operation in which five militants were killed.

Tahmid and Hasnat were arrested on August 3 under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which empowers police to arrest anyone on suspicion without any warrant.

The following day, they were placed on eight-day remand each.

After their remand ended, police produced Hasnat before the court on August 13 as an accused in the Gulshan attack case while Tahmid was kept detained under Section 54.

Yesterday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said Tahmid was cleared of the charges because no acceptable, presentable and logical evidence against him was found during investigation.

“We cannot call someone innocent or guilty whimsically. Investigation of a case depends on witnesses and evidence,” he said at a programme in the capital.