Dhaka café attack suspect Tahmid released on bail

Tahmid Hasib Khan, one of the survivors of Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka, was released on bail from the central jail in Keraniganj around 10:15am tonight.

“We have released Tahmid after receiving the bail order from a court in Dhaka,” Jahangir Kabir, senior jail super of the jail told The Daily Star.

Earlier in the day, a Dhaka court granted bail to Tahmid, who had been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the Gulshan café attack on July 1.

Metropolitan Magistrate Laskar Sohel Rana passed the order after his lawyer moved a petition bail.

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Earlier on September 28, the investigation officer of the case Humayun Kabir, also an inspector of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, appealed to the court to relieve Tahmid from the charge as his involvement was not found in the report.

On August 3, Tahmid, a Canadian university student, and Hasnat Karim, a former private university teacher in Bangladesh, were detained on suspicion of their link with the July 1 terror attack.

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They were shown arrested under section-54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Tahmid was sent to jail on August 20 after completion of his 14-day remand in two phases.

Tahmid, a student of a university in Toronto, came to Dhaka a day before the attack on July 1 when armed militants held dinners and staffers hostage in the café.

The attackers killed 20 hostages -- nine Italian, seven Japanese, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladesh-born US citizen -- and two police officers who tried to end the standoff soon after it began around 8:40pm.

Tahmid went to the restaurant with two female students of a private university. They both survived the attack.

Islamic State took credit for the attack and published photos of the victims and the attackers within hours, but the government blames JMB, a banned militant outfit.