A Dhaka court has granted police three days to question in custody an adolescent son of suspected militant Tanvir Qaderi Shipar in an order described as ‘sensitive’ by a lawyer.
Police rescued Tanvir’s twin sons and another child from a house in Azimpur where the suspected leader of Neo-Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh was killed in an anti-terror operation on Sep 10.
Tanvir had been working as the co-ordinator of Neo-JMB after the killing of alleged Gulshan cafe attack mastermind Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury in another raid in Narayanganj on Aug 27.
Police started a case after the Azimpur raid under the Anti Terrorism Act. One of the two 14-year-old sons of Tanvir was also accused in the case.
Assistant Commissioner of DMP’s counterterrorism unit, Ahsanul Karim, who is investigating the case, produced him before Dhaka’s Juvenile Court on Sunday. He asked for 10 days to quiz the boy in custody to glean information about his father.
Court Police’s Senior Assistant Commissioner Mirash Uddin told the court at the hearing that the eighth-grader boy had attacked police with knife during the raid.
Lawyer Faruk Ahmed, who has handled many antiterrorism cases, was present at the hearing of the remand petition.
“It can be considered for the sake of the state and the public, though laws discourage interrogation of children in remand,” Faruk said when the judge, Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Ruhul Amin, sought his opinion on the matter.
The judge then ordered the questioning of Tanvir’s son for three days. He also ordered police to carefully follow High Court’s instructions while grilling the boy.
No lawyer represented the teenager at the hearing.
Md Borhanuddin, a lawyer with experience in criminal cases and former president of Dhaka Bar Association, termed the remand order ‘sensitive’.
“It’s sensitive because the scope of police remand is limited in child laws. Even the judge had been told to hold the hearing not in official gown, so that the children do not get frightened,” he said.
He also said a child cannot be taken to court in handcuffs. “The probation officer of the social welfare department or the ministry will also have to be to present during the grilling,” he added.
Former judge Rezaul Karim told bdnews24.com any lawyer should stood for the teenager in the court and say that he cannot be remanded like other accused.
DMP Deputy Commissioner Md Masudur Rahman said all the laws would be followed during the questioning of Tanvir’s son.
Tanvir’s wife Abedatul Fatema, injured in the raid, is undergoing treatment.
Tanvir, hailing from Gaibandha, was a former banker while Fatema was working in international organisation Save the Children after graduating from Dhaka University.
Police said the couple embraced militancy on return from Saudi Arabia where they went to perform Hajj in 2014.
Source: Bd news24