By Canadian Press

Family calls for release of UofT student detained after Dhaka attack

Jul 6, 2016 | 3:25 PM

TORONTO — A University of Toronto student who survived a horrific hostage-taking in Bangladesh has been detained by authorities in the country’s capital ever since the weekend attack, his family said Wednesday as they called for the young man’s immediate release.

Police have not explained why they’ve held Tahmid Hasib Khan for the past four days and concerns are mounting for his well-being, his family said.

“We are concerned that they might put a case against him,” his cousin Rasheek Irtisam told The Canadian Press in an interview from Dhaka. “If they put a case against him, it will take years in Bangladesh.”

Khan, a 22-year-old permanent resident of Canada, is an undergraduate student studying global health at the University of Toronto.

He had arrived in Dhaka on July 1 to celebrate Eid with his family, and planned to travel to Nepal to begin an internship next week.

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Khan was meeting with friends at an upscale restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone when he got caught up in a 10-hour hostage crisis that evening.

Two police officers and 20 hostages — nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian and three students at American universities — were killed in the bloody siege.

Local authorities have said five of the hostages who survived the attack are being held for questioning — three have since been released.

In the days since the attack, authorities have said that the assailants did not fit the typical profile for religious radicals coming from economically deprived backgrounds and latching onto extremist groups that promised a new future. Most had come from privileged backgrounds, and were educated in top schools.

Khan’s family is worried authorities might think he’s linked to those behind the attack.

“We are thinking that he’s being interrogated because he’s of the same age group as other terrorists, so we think they might think he has a link,” said Irtisam. “He was definitely not involved.”

Khan’s father was able to speak with his son twice since the siege ended, with the last phone call taking place two days ago.

“He said he was alive, he was doing fine,” said Irtisam, adding that his cousin had epilepsy and sometimes suffers seizures when under extreme stress. “We are right now worried about that. We are trying to get some doctors over there.”

Khan’s parents feel “helpless,” said Irtisam, and have repeatedly told local authorities they would co-operate with any further investigation after Khan’s release.

They have also reached out to Bangladesh’s Home Minister in an attempt to secure their son’s release and have a lawyer stationed outside the building where Khan is being held, Irtisam said.

Bangladesh police have said they are investigating whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility.

However, the government has blamed the attack and a wave of other recent killings on domestic militant organizations bent on imposing Islamic rule.

— with files from the Associated Press

Diana Mehta, The Canadian Press