Published on 03:19 PM, July 16, 2017

Dhaka café attack: Cops asked to submit report by Aug 27

A Dhaka court today asked the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police to submit by August 27 the probe report of the case filed over Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Gulshan of Dhaka.

Metropolitan Magistrate Nurunnahar Yesmin passed the order after Humayun Kabir, an inspector of the CTTC and also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, failed to submit any probe report today.

Earlier, the counter terrorism unit arrested four people including three suspected militants and a former private university teacher. Of them, three “militants” have given confessional statements before a magistrate.

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The arrestees are: Hasnat Karim, an ex-teacher of North South University (NSU), Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan, an active operative of  Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), one of the “key planner” of the attack Zahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi and Rakibul Hasan alias Regan.

Later, on July 9 law-enforcers arrested another top tier “Neo JMB” militant Sohel Mahfuj, who is now on seven-day remand.

Sohel Mahfuz, who has been a key leader of banned militant outfit JMB for over a decade, supplied grenades used in the Gulshan café attack, police said.

On the night of July 1, 2016, five armed militants stormed into Holet Artisan Bakery in the Gulshan diplomatic zone and held diners hostage at gunpoint. They then brutally murdered nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian and three Bangladeshis.

Two police officers also lost their lives as law enforcers in groups tried to close in on the place.

The siege ended through a commando operation in which five militants and a chef died. Another staffer died of his injuries in hospital.