Dhaka – Police arrested three people, including acting Pro-Vice Chancellor of North South University Gias Uddin Ahsan, from different parts of the capital on Saturday for not keeping information of tenants who were involved in the Gulshan terrorist attack, UNB news agency reported.The other arrestees are: Alam Chowdury, nephew of Gias Uddin Ahsan, and manager of the building Mahbubur Rahman Tuhin.
Deputy Commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Masudur Rahman told UNB that a team of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Unit (CTTU) of police arrested the trio from separate areas in the capital in the afternoon.
The DC said members of the militant group that carried out the terrorist attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan on July 1, earlier rented a flat at holding number A/6 of Block-E at road no-6 in Basundhara residentional area in May.
The militants and their associates also met at the flat on the day for the operation.
Soon after the Gulshan attack, the tenants abandoned the flat and went missing.
Later, police seized cartons containing sand and some clothes of the militants.
Police is suspecting that the grenades used in the hotel attack were kept in the cartoon with sand.
Masudur Rahman said the owner of the flat is Pro-VC Gias Uddin Ahsan of North South University whose nephew Alam and building manager Tuhin used to look after the building and the tenants.
The owner or his associates did not keep the names and addresses of the tenants while renting out the flat to them, he said.
On July 1, gunmen stormed the cafe and took guests and employees hostage. Twenty bodies, including nine of Italians and seven Japanese nationals, were recovered from the crime spot the following day.
The crisis ended following an army-led joint forces’ operation – ‘Operation Thunderbolt’. Two policemen and six militants, of whom one later appeared to be a staff of the Bakery who may not be involved in the attack, were also killed.
The only injured suspect who was arrested during the operation later succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital under police custody on July 8. He was also a staff of the Bakery and police is yet not certain about his involvement in the attack.
