Dhaka, (Pakistan Point News – 9th July, 2016) : A Bangladeshi youngster who was arrested for being suspected in previous week's lethal attack on a Dhaka coffee bar has died in police custody. His family is claiming that he was a detainee and alleging torture by security forces. According to the French news agency, AFP, Zakir Hussain Shawon, 18, who was a kitchen assistant at the Holey Artisan Bakery, was arrested after previous week's noxious beleaguering by militants.
The militant killed 22 people, including 18 foreigners in the attack. Five assailants were killed and arrested Shawon together with another man over "suspicious activities", considering him as a suspect, but this claim was strongly rejected by his family, who claimed that he was taken detainee like other targets. Police and his family stated that he died in the intensive care unit (ICU) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Friday, during late hours, after five days of hospitalization.
Abdus Sattar, Shawon's father, claimed an inquiry of his death, while saying that his son was innocent and the main breadwinner of his family who died due to torture. Sattar told AFP, "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". The head of Ain o Salish Kendra, Nur Khan Liton, a leading human rights group, said there were uncertainties about Shawon's association with the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.
He said, mentioning to another name for the militant group, “IS has named five attackers and police have identified all five. And he was not among the five, and If he was treated as an associate or helper of the attacker, police must present evidence or information". Police and military personnel repudiated that Shawon had been tortured in custody. Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP that he was held because of suspicious actions. They did not have any chance to cross-examine him since he was wounded and hospitalized. "He could not recognize me or his mother and thought we were his brother," the father said. "He would cry out in his sleep, pleading with someone, "Please don't hit me. Let me go," he added.
