report in The daily star, July 1, 2018
Police found the involvement of 21 militants in the Gulshan café attack and will press charges against eight of them as the rest are dead.
“Two of the eight, who will be named in the charge sheet, are still on the run,” said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the DMP.
Five of the 21 militants were killed inside the upscale bakery in a commando operation while eight others, including the mastermind, were killed later in different anti-militancy drives, he told reporters at his office in the city yesterday.
Six of the suspects are in jail and they are “Neo JMB” leaders, he said.
Asked whether former private university teacher Hasnat Reza Karim, who is also in jail, would be charge sheeted, the police officer said it would not be “legally right” to disclose the names of the accused as police were yet to submit the charge sheet.
He, however, named the two absconding suspects. They are Shariful Islam Khalid and Mamunur Rashid Ripon.
Monirul also did not specify the date when the charge sheet would be filed. However on Thursday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said it might be submitted in 10 days.
Counterterrorism officials have never said anything officially about Hasnat since his arrest on August 3, 2016. However, speaking on condition of anonymity, two officials, involved with the investigation, said Hasnat’s name would be dropped from the charge sheet as they had yet not found his link with the attack.
Asked why Hasnat was kept in jail for about two years, one of the officials said granting bail to any accused fell under the jurisdiction of the court.
Contacted on Thursday, Hasnat’s wife Sharmina Parvin refused to make any comments on the matter.
Hasnat and Sharmina were dining at the Holey Artisan Cafe along with their daughter and son on the night of July 1, 2016 when the attack was carried out.
That night, five gunmen stormed the café, staged a 13-hour hostage drama and killed 20 people, including nine Italian, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladesh-born US citizen. Two police officers who responded immediately were also killed.
The attackers allowed Hasnat to leave the café with other hostages before army commandos stormed it. Later, he was taken to custody for questioning.
While police kept claiming that Hasnat was released after questioning, their families insisted that he never returned home and could not be reached by any means. On August 3 that year, police claimed that they had arrested Hasnat under Section-54 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The section says police can arrest any person on suspicion without any arrest warrant.
Amid such developments, two photographs of Hasnat and a Canadian university student, Tahmid Hasib Khan, surfaced on August 7 that year. In the photos, the two appeared to be talking with one of the attackers Rohan Imtiaz.
The photos taken the next morning on July 2, 2016 showed Tahmid and Rohan were carrying firearms and talking with Hasnat on the rooftop of the cafe. Tahmid was holding a pistol and Rohan and he were listening to Hasnat. On social media, a video footage did the round where Hasnat was seen smoking cigarettes at that time.
In the course of investigation it was revealed that some gruesome pictures of the victims were sent to a receiver through encrypted messages app ‘Wickr Me’ using Hasnat’s cell phone.
Hasnat’s wife Sharmina claimed that her husband is innocent and on the night of the cafe siege, the gunmen used him as a “human shield” and took him to the terrace.
On August 13, Hasnat, also a British citizen, was shown arrested in the terror attack case. He was interrogated for several days on remand.
Tahmid, who was also rescued from the cafe, was shown arrested under section-54 for “instigating” the café attackers on August 3 in 2016. He was interrogated on remand. On April 16 last year, a Dhaka court acquitted him of the charges and he was freed.
The six suspects, who are in jail, are Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, recruiter of the café attackers; Rashed alias Rash, a planner of the café attack; Sohel Mahfuz, grenade supplier; Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan, arms supplier; Hadisur Rahman Sagor, arms supplier; and Rakibul Islam Rigan, a so-called religious trainer.
Regarding involvement of any political groups in the attack, Monirul said that they were not able to arrest any top militants like Tamim or Sarwar Jahan alive and for that reason they could not say clearly whether any other group had any links in the incident. www.thedailystar.net/backpage/police-press-charges-against-8-1598122
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