Two youthful witnesses to Dhaka carnage detained

All the survivors of the Dhaka Gulshan cafe attack on July 1 have been released, except for Tahmid and Hasnat, youthful witnesses. According to police sources, both of them gave separate statements about the incident. However, it was not made clear why they were detained for another 72 hours, the Dhaka Tribune said. The police earlier said they were looking into their alleged involvement in the Gulshan attack as circulated on the social media. Tt is not clear where the two survivors - Tahmid, a student of the University of Toronto, and Hasnat, a former teacher of the North South University, ended up after their release. Family members of Tahmid, a Canadian resident, have been running campaign on social media to get him back. They also tried to get him released, citing his medical condition, as he is an epileptic, but failed. "They have been released after interrogation," Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Masudur Rahman said on Sunday night. Monirul Islam, Additional Commissioner of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit of police, said that the police had not detained or arrested Tahmid. "They are just being questioned as they witnessed the incident". The two police officials' versions suggest that Tahmid and Hasnat were released on the night of July 6, hours before Eid. However, both the families confirmed that they had not returned home as of 11 pm on Sunday, nine days after the July 1 carnage that claimed at least 22 lives. Tahmid's father, Shahriar Khan said: "If the state needs to question him, they should, but they should let us know where he is." Hasnat's father, Rezaul Karim, confirmed that his son was still missing, the Dhaka Tribune said.