‘Tahmid will be interrogated, if needed’

“Tahmid will be interrogated whenever needed. He has been set free under this condition,” the minister said in response to a question at his office. “His bail [granted Sunday] is not in our hands. The court has granted him bail. Neither the law enforcers nor the Home Ministry has the right to point finger at the matter.” The minister said that Tahmid was not shown arrested since the detectives had not got any exclusive information about his direct involvement in the attack. Monirul Islam, chief of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes unit, Monday said that Tahmid had been found not involved in the Holey Artisan Bakery attack on July 1. He got bail on Sunday. But the police alleged that he had been reluctant to give information during the interrogation. So far, the investigators have shown Hasnat Reza Karim, another survivor arrested in the case, and remanded him in custody. About keeping the children of war criminals under vigilance, the home minister said that the government would take action against them if they fail to lead their life as common people and show respect to the country’s legal system. “We will definitely take action against them if anyone tries to break the law and helps their war criminal parents through misdeeds,” Asaduzzaman said. On the fatal attack on college student in Sylhet Khadiza Akter Nargis, the minister said that they would take stern action against the perpetrator to ensure his punishment disregarding his identity. On Monday evening, Khadiza, 23, a student of Government Women’s College in Sylhet, was stopped and hacked on her way back home by Badrul Alam, 30, a top leader of Chhatra League’s Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) unit. Asaduzzaman told reporters that his ministry had decided to form an air wing of the Bangladesh Police force. “We want to buy helicopters for the force, but the number of helicopters to be bought depends on the Finance Ministry,” he said. The minister also said that they were working to strengthen the capacity of the DMP’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit that deals with militancy by increasing its manpower. Moreover, the government will procure ships for the Coast Guard. “Our sea boundary has increased. To ensure security in the Bay, the government has taken initiatives to buy four ships for the Coast Guard, two of which will reach us this year,” he said.