Amnesty International asks Hasanat Karim’s ‘whereabouts’ after Dhaka terror attack

The Amnesty International has expressed concern over the “whereabouts and wellbeing” of Abul Hasanat R Karim who survived the terror attack on a Dhaka cafe on July 1.

In a statement on Monday, it called upon the Bangladesh authorities to immediately establish his fate and whereabouts and inform his family.

The UK-based rights group also asked the government to ensure that he has immediate access to his family, a lawyer and to any medical attention he may require.

Hasanat Karim should be immediately released unless he is promptly charged with an internationally recognisable criminal offence and presented immediately before a court, it said.

Terrorists killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, before commandos freed 13 from the Gushan Holey Artisan Bakery.

Of them, Karim, a former teacher at the North South University, and Tahmid Hasib Khan, a Bangladeshi who studies in Canada, were in the police custody after the bakery was stormed by security forces.

Both of their families have said that they had not returned since then.

But Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman told bdnews24.com on Saturday night that “everyone rescued from the Gulshan cafe have been released”. “No-one is in police custody.”

Amnesty International, quoting his wife Shoma, said the family was taken into custody by the Detective Branch for questioning.

He was separated from his family on that evening and put in a room with another male hostage. She was placed in another room with the children and questioned by police about the attack at the restaurant.

The wife said she only saw him briefly on July 2. On July 3, she and the children were released from the Detective Branch but she did not see her husband again.

“Hasanat Karim has a stent in his heart and may be in need of medical treatment. His family is extremely concerned about his wellbeing.

“They have given his medicine to the police but are unsure if the police then gave it to him,” the rights group said.

His father MR Karim told bdnews24.com on Monday he had written to police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque and DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia for the whereabouts of his son.