Court Correspondent :
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court of Dhaka on Wednesday denied bail to Gulshan cafe attack suspect Hasnat Karim’s bail for the fourth time.
Hasnat, the former North South University teacher’s counsel moved the bail petition to the court, while Magistrate Satyabrata Shikder heard on the bail plea in Karim’s absence and turned down the petition. On the night of July 1, last year, gunmen barged into the Holey Artisan Bakery and O’ Kitchen Restaurant at the capital’s diplomatic enclave of Gulshan. Twenty hostages, including 17 foreign nationals, were killed by the militants, while five militants and a suspected associate of the attackers were killed during the commando operation in the café on July 2.
Of the 20 hostages, nine were Italian, seven Japanes, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one Bangladesh-born US citizen. Two police officials, who tried to end the standoff soon after it had began were also killed in the incident.
The attackers killed 20 people, mostly foreigners, inside the restaurant before army commandos stormed it the next morning, killing six persons, including five attackers..
Hasnat and his family, who went to the restaurant that day, was among the several other diners released by the attackers early morning on Jul 2 before the army raided the place.
Hasnat, though apparently a hostage during the attack, was kept under close watch since that day. Police arrested him on August 2 as a suspect in the case under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He was later shown arrested in the case police lodged in connection with the attack.
After a few rounds of remand, when he was quizzed in police custody, on Aug 13, he filed a bail petition, which was turned down. On August 24, he once again moved a bail petition, but rejected again. His counsel filed another bail petition on October 30 with the Sessions Judge’s Court, but failed to secure bail for his client.
