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Bangladesh arrests two suspects over July terror attack

Thursday, 04 August 2016 3:56 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 04 August 2016 5:28 PM ]

Bangladesh police escort Hasnat Karim (C-L) and Tahmid Hasib Khan (C-R) towards the court as suspects in a July terror attack in Dhaka on August 4, 2016. (AFP Photo)

Police in Bangladesh have arrested two men on suspicion of involvement in a last month hostage-taking incident in the capital, Dhaka, which left 20 people dead.

Hasnat Karim and Tahmid Hasib Khan were arrested in different areas of the capital on Wednesday night.

"We can confirm they were arrested," police spokesman A.K.M Shahidur Rahman said on Thursday.

The two men had not been seen in public since the incident, in which five armed gunmen attacked a restaurant on the night of July 1, killing 20 people and holding others inside hostage. Security forces stormed the restaurant on July 2, killing the gunmen and rescuing the remaining 13 hostages.

Karim, who holds dual British and Bangladeshi citizenship, and Khan, a student of Toronto University, were reportedly dining separately at the restaurant, when the attack took place.

They were unharmed and taken for questioning by police. Police soon released the others, but the two remained in custody.

This photograph taken on July 5, 2016 shows Bangladeshi policemen at a checkpoint in a street leading to the entrance of a restaurant in uptown Dhaka which was the site of a bloody hostage-taking attack. (AFP Photo)

Their arrest has drawn criticism from rights groups and the suspects’ families who say the two have been kept in jail unjustly.

National police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque told reporters on Tuesday that the two men were "not out of suspicion" as their "behavior and actions" during the attack were questionable.

The Daesh Takfiri militant group, mainly active in Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has said the incident was the work of a homegrown terrorist group, namely the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), adding that Daesh, and other terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda had no base in Bangladesh.

A string of deadly attacks in Bangladesh has led to serious concerns about rising terrorism in the poverty-stricken nation.

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