Abul Hasanat Reza Karim, a Bangladeshi civil engineer with British nationality, and Toronto University student Tahmid Hasib Khan were picked up by the Detective Branch for interrogation following their rescue from the Gulshan café that came under an extremist attack on July 1.
According to the family, however, although his wife and two children, who were also taken in police custody along with Hasanat, were released on July 3, Hasanat has not been seen since July 2. Also, as New York Times recently reported, Tahmid has not been seen since he was taken in police custody.
Police had interrogated Hasanat and some others in phases at the DB office until July 8, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner (media and public relations) told the press that they were not in their custody, without giving details, generating grave apprehension among many that Hasanat and Tahmid may have fallen victim to enforced disappearance.
The police denial of any knowledge of the whereabouts of Hasanat and Tahmid came at a time when a suspect, held during the attack but claimed by his family to be an employee of the upscale café, died in police custody in Dhaka Medical Hospital on July 8.
Besides, a college student, captured by local people at the crime scene after a machete attack on a college teacher in Madaripur in June and handed over to the police, died in an alleged gunfight with the police just a few days after the incident.
One can also recall the so-called crossfire deaths of two people accused of perpetrating the murder of the wife of the superintendent of police in Chittagong. That apart, another accused in the same murder who was allegedly picked up by the police a few weeks ago still remains missing. Given the series of murders/disappearances of various crime suspects, one has reasons to be concerned about the fate of Hasanat and Tahmid.
This is, indeed, alarming that such extrajudicial murders and cases of disappearances after arrests continue in the midst of repeated protests against the phenomenon. Again, it continues even after different sections of society cautioning that all this prevents unearthing clues to the crimes perpetrated by the suspects, not to mention the identity of the masterminds, and, thus, fails to stop recurrence of the crimes.
Under the circumstances, if the government is serious about uprooting religious extremism, it should follow the due process of law in bringing the perpetrators of the Gulshan attack. As a part of it, it immediately needs to respond to the demand of families of Hasanat and Tahmid, two suspects, for knowledge of the whereabouts of the individuals in questions. The government needs to realise that any further failure in this regard will not only cause people to lose confidence entirely in the legal and judicial system but also lead society into further lawlessness. Not a good idea for anybody.
