‘Missing’ Gulshan cafe siege hostages’ link to terror at interrogation stage: Police

The involvement of two ‘missing’ Gulshan cafe siege hostages is at the ‘stage of interrogation’, the chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) says.

They are former North South University teacher Abul Hasanat R Karim and Tahmid Hasib Khan, a Bangladeshi who studies in Canada.

Their families say they had not returned home after security forces took them following the Jul 1 attack that left 20 hostages dead at the heart of Dhaka’s diplomatic district.

DMP spokesperson Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman told bdnews24.com on Jul 10 that everyone rescued from the cafe had been released.

On being asked what police have found about Hasanat and Tahmid during questioning, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said, “It is still at interrogation stage.”

Asked where they were being kept, he evaded a direct answer, only saying, “The investigators will be able to answer your question better.”

An amateur video shot of the cafe during the siege brought Hasanat to the centre of speculation on the social media with many asserting that he was linked with the attackers.

Abul Hasanat R Karim and Tahmid Hasib Khan

North South University had reportedly removed him over links with the extremist group Hizb-ut Tahrir.

Nibras Islam, one of the young Islamist gunmen shot dead by the commandos, had studied at the private university.

Tahmid Hasib Khan, a student at the University of Toronto, is a permanent resident of Canada.

Son of businessman Shahriar Khan, his family said he arrived in Dhaka the day before the attack and was in the upscale cafe to have Iftar with his friends.

The case initiated over the terror attack mentions both Hasanat and Tahmid among the 32 persons rescued from the restaurant.