Tahmid sent to jail after 14 days' remand

Tahmid Hasib Khan, who had been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the Gulshan café attack, was sent to jail yesterday after his remand for 14 days in two phases ended.

Police neither implicated him in the terror attack nor submitted a fresh remand prayer for him as they produced him in the court.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

However, the law enforcement agencies told the court that Tahmid should be kept under judicial custody for the sake of investigation.

“Tahmid gave crucial information about the Gulshan attack. We are scrutinising the information. So, he should be kept in jail until the investigation is completed,” said Inspector Humayun Kabir of the counter-terrorism unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police in the forwarding report submitted to the court.

Seeking Tahmid's release on bail, a defence lawyer, however, told the court that police took him on remand in two phases “but could not unearth anything as he was not involved in the incident.”

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Delwar Hossain passed an order sending Tahmid to jail.

On August 3, Tahmid, a Canadian university student, and Hasnat Karim, a former private university teacher in Bangladesh, were detained on suspicion of their link with the July 1 terror attack. 

They were shown arrested under section-54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Having both of them in custody for questioning for eight days, police on August 13, implicated Hasnat in the terror attack.

Police, however, chose to continue interrogating Tahmid under section-54 and took him on a fresh remand for six days.

Hasnat, the lone arrestee in the case linked with the murders of 20 hostages and two policemen in the attack, has been taken on another eight-day remand. 

He may be produced before the court on Monday after the completion of his remand period, police said.

On July 1, five militants stormed Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital's Gulshan and held diners hostage at gunpoint.

They murdered nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladesh-born US citizen hours before a military operation the next morning killed the terrorists and one café chef ending the siege.  

Hasnat and Tahmid were among the survivors.

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

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

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

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