DHAKA: An 18-year-old Bangladeshi teenager, who was arrested after last week´s deadly attack on a Dhaka café, has died in the police custody on Friday.
Zakir Hossain Shawon, who police say was a suspect in the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery Café, died yesterday (Friday) in police custody, with his family insisting he was a hostage and alleging torture by security forces.
Shawon was a kitchen assistant at the Holey Artisan Bakery and he was arrested after last week´s deadly siege by suspected terrorists in which 22 people, including 18 foreigners were killed.
According to his family, police had arrested Shawon together with another man over “suspicious activities”, treating him as a suspect and tortured him.
“He was tortured badly in the police custody,” one of Shawon’s family member told reporters.
“He was taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital late Friday. After five days in the clinic, he succumbed to his injuries in the hospital,” police and his family said.
Shawon’s father Abdus Sattar said that his son was innocent and was taken hostage like other people. He demanded an investigation into his son’s death, saying his “innocent son and the main breadwinner of his family” died due to torture.
“His whole body had marks of torture. There were marks of curdled blood in many places. One of his eyes and two knees were blackened. His wrists were blackened. It seems he was hanged by ropes tied to his wrists,” Sattar said.
Head of a leading human rights group in Bangladesh, Nur Khan Liton said that there were doubts about Shawon’s involvement in the attack, as he was not among the five who were named y the Islamic State (IS) after the attack.
“IS has named five attackers and police have identified all five. And he was not among the five,” he said. “If he was treated as an associate or helper of the attacker, police must present evidence or information.”
Meanwhile, police and military representatives denied that Shawon had been tortured in custody.
“He was held because of suspicious activities. We did not have any opportunity to interrogate him since he was injured and hospitalised,” Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman told reporters.
