Dhaka: The gruesome 11-hour ordeal at a Dhaka café that ended with 22 people, including two policemen killed, has left the entire world in a state of shock. The attackers identified are believed to be from influential families putting Bangladesh at the centre of attention for terror activities over the radicalisation of youth from well to do backgrounds.
While authorities are still grappling to ascertain the group involved in the attack, an unlikely suspect has caught the attention of investigators in Bangladesh. The man has been identified as Hasnat Karim, who reportedly worked for the North South University (NSU) in Dhaka five years ago.
Interestingly, he was among those held hostage during Friday’s attack, and is now under Detective Branch (DB) of police custody since last night.
“We have kept him in our custody to interrogate Hasnat about what he had seen during the hostage situation,” DB Deputy Commissioner Mahbub Alam told the Dhaka Tribune, adding that the detectives went to Hasnat's house and seized his laptop on Sunday.
Hasnat grabbed the attention of the investigators just a few hours after the rescue operation ended. This was after photos and videos of the terror siege started emerging on social media.
In some of the photos and videos, a bald man was seen smoking cigarettes on the balcony on the second floor of the restaurant reportedly with two of the terrorists. In some other videos, he was seen having conversations inside the cafe and later walking out of the premises.
These footages and photos had raised a question over the identity of the man, later identified as Hasnat Karim.
According to sources reportedly close to the man, Hasnat was a lecturer at NSU but left the job at least seven years ago. Many even claimed that Hasnat was indeed involved in the mission, however these claims could not be verified.
There are more dots that purportedly connect Hasnat with the attack. One of the attackers, Nibras Islam was a student of NSU before joining Monash University in Malaysia.
In 2012, Hasnat's name came up in a report, published in a local daily, which claimed four NSU professors were involved with banned militant outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Meanwhile, Hasnat was taken to DB office along with his wife Sharmin Parvin and children Safar and Raiyan for their statements regarding what they had seen during their stay in the restaurant on that Friday night.
The detectives have still kept Hasnat in their custody for interrogation.
Earlier, Hasnat's father Rezaul Karim had said that his son went to celebrate Safar's birthday at the restaurant and fell a victim to the incident. Hasnat’s wife and children have now been released.
Friday’s Dhaka attack claimed 22 lives, including two policemen. The horrific hostage situation ended after 11 hours on Saturday morning when the commandos broke into the restaurant and killed six out of the seven gunmen.
Hasnat studied in New work and returned to Bangladesh in 2000. He also confirmed that Hasnat had worked for NSU five to six years ago but now he only looks after their family business.
A senior DB official said Hasnat's Banani resident has been raided on Monday following a suspicious answer given by him during the interrogation. However, he said, nothing worth mentioning has been disclosed by Hasnat yet.
Investigations are currently on over Hasnat’s possible involvement in the attack as well as his links with with Hizb ut-Tahrir.
