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Hasnat relieved from Holey Artisan attack charges

2 || risingbd.com

Published: 10:52, 23 July 2018   Update: 15:18, 26 July 2020
Hasnat relieved from Holey Artisan attack charges

Staff Correspondent: Police on Monday pressed charge sheet in the Holey Artisan attack occurred in the capital’s Gulshan two years ago, where 20 people, mostly foreigners, were killed off as hostages.

Eight militants were charged in the case while Prof Hasnat Karim, a former teacher of North South University (NSU) was dropped from the charge sheet as he was not found involved with the militant activity in the investigation.

Monirul Islam, chief of Bangladesh’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, came up with the disclosure in a press briefing held at Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) media centre.

He said, “Twenty-one people were found involved in the attack. Of them, five were killed on the spot during drive and two are on the run. Former NSU teacher Prof Hasnat Karim was not found involved in the incident. So, he was dropped from the charge sheet. At the same time, chef Saiful Islam and Shaon were also not found involved in the terror attack.”

In reply to a query of the reporters, Monirul said, “Militants carried out the attack to identify the country as a militant state making it unstable, to make the government stymied, to harm foreign investment and to force foreign buyers to leave the country.

“No link of international militant group was found behind the attack. But, militants aimed to get attention of international militant group through the incident. The led the attack to get technological support from the international militant group through the terror attack,” he added.

Monirul said, “The charge sheet was prepared based on 75 pieces of evidence and 211 witnesses to the incident of the carnage. Of the witnesses, 149 are eye-witnesses and other are officers of different law enforcement agencies and officials who conducted forensic tests.

On July 1, 2016, a group of militants laid siege to the Gulshan café and killed 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners. Two police officers also lost their lives in the attack.
 

risingbd/Dhaka/July 23, 2018/Maksud/A K Azad

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