3 held over Dhaka attack; PM seeks alert

DHAKA: Acting deputy vice chancellor of a private university was arrested along with two others for sheltering militants who carried out the Holey Artisan restaurant

DHAKA: Acting deputy vice chancellor of a private university was arrested along with two others for sheltering militants who carried out the Holey Artisan restaurant terror attack.

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Fearing fresh Islamist attacks, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought a nationwide social alert advising neighbourhoods and institutions to develop their own security systems. “Once they (Islamists) started, they are unlikely to keep silent,” she told media.

North South University’s (NSU) acting pro-VC Gias Uddin Ahsan was arrested for renting out a flat to the attackers of Holey Artisan Bakery, said Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Police. Ahsan is the dean of NSU’s School of Health and Life Sciences, according to the private university’s website.

His nephew Alam Chowdhury and Mahbubur Rahman Tuhin, the manager of a house in Bashundhara Residential Area, were also arrested.

Five militants who carried out the July 1 assault had taken shelter in the flat owned by Ahsan, Rahman said. The associates of the assailants fled the flat after the attack.

Meanwhile, machete-wielding men attacked three elderly Sufi Muslims, including two women, on Sunday in western Bangladesh.