It is highly concerning that the police have only relayed misinformation, which has created tremendous confusion regarding the statuses of Lazarus Saren and Jakirul Islam, who were picked up as suspects for unspecified reasons.
In the initial case file of July 4, neither Lazarus nor Jakirul were mentioned, either as hostage or as suspected militant. When detained, Lazarus, a Christian man, was injured in his left leg, while Jakirul, an employee of O’Kitchen adjacent to Holey Artisan Bakery, had a chest wound.
The facts simply don’t add up, and the police have a lot of answering to do
Why, the public needs to know, are they suddenly being treated as suspects? And why were they not mentioned in the case before?
We also need to know why police are not letting anyone speak to these men.
There remain questions regarding the whereabouts of Tahmid and Hasnat, who were initially in police custody but have since disappeared without explanation.
The fates of Lazarus and Jakirul are just as concerning, if not more so, because of their added vulnerability due to their class backgrounds. Lazarus, furthermore, was a religious minority, which makes him a highly unlikely candidate to be a suspect in Islamist militant activities.
The facts simply don’t add up, and the police have a lot of answering to do. The public’s faith in our law enforcement in this time of crisis hangs in the balance.
