Tahmid Hasib Khan, 22, is shown in a Facebook photo.
The parents of a University of Toronto student who is being held by Bangladeshi authorities after surviving a deadly attack in a restaurant in the capital are maintaining a presence outside the police building, where their son is in custody, in hopes of being able to visit him.
Tahmid Hasib Khan, 22, was meeting two female friends at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter on Friday evening, when heavily armed attackers stormed the eatery, killing 20 people. After being held hostage for some 11 hours, Mr. Khan and several others were rescued by commandos, but he is one of several hostages who have been detained for questioning by police ever since. Police have not elaborated on why Mr. Khan is among those being held.
"Right now, [his parents are] trying their best to get him out from the custody," Rasheek Irtisam, Mr. Khan's cousin, told The Globe and Mail in an interview from Dhaka. "They're trying to expedite the process."
Family members say Mr. Khan had no involvement in the attack and speculate he is being profiled because he is of a similar age to those responsible. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for Friday's siege, which was one of the country's deadliest.
"His age is in that range, so that's why they're suspecting him," Mr. Irtisam said, adding that some of the terrorists were also educated abroad. "That's a red flag for them."
There is another Canadian connection to the Dhaka attack: According to Bangladeshi newspaper reports, Bangladeshi Canadian Tamim Chowdhury, also known as Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, is the reported leader of the Islamic State-affiliated group.
When asked whether Mr. Khan could be in custody because of his ties to Canada and suspicions about a link to Mr. Chowdhury, Mr. Irtisam said he had not heard of the alleged terrorist and asked a reporter for more details, later saying, "That could be one reason."
Mr. Irtisam said it should have been clear to police that Mr. Khan wasn't involved because his family's chauffeur was waiting in their car outside the restaurant and witnessed the militants storming the eatery on Friday evening, remaining on the scene while calling Mr. Khan's parents. His father, local businessman Fazle Rahim Khan Shahriar, arrived at the police barricade and waited several agonizing hours before learning his son was alive.
Mr. Khan's parents have met with the country's Home Minister in an effort to expedite his release, Mr. Irtisam said. Family members are also consulting with lawyers and are concerned Mr. Khan will not be able to travel to Nepal, where he has a summer internship at Unicef. They also worry that if he is charged and tried, he would miss a semester at U of T. "That's the problem we are facing right now," he said.
Since being taken hostage, Mr. Khan has spoken with his parents by phone three times – once during the siege at the restaurant. "He says he's fine, he's alive," said Mr. Irtisam, 29, who is starting a PhD in finance at the University of Memphis in the fall.
The ordeal is especially trying for Mr. Khan's mother because the only reason her younger son was in Dhaka last week was because she asked him to change his travel itinerary so he could visit his family to celebrate Eid, Mr. Irtisam said. Mr. Khan, who grew up in Dhaka, returned on July 1, just hours before the restaurant attack. He initially planned to fly directly from Canada to Nepal for his internship.
"The only thing right now that can stop the tears of his mother is the safe return of her son. How can we let his mother go through such agony as she is constantly blaming herself that she inadvertently brought this upon her son by making him come home? Can't we do anything to soothe her agony?" Mr. Irtisam wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
In addition to his family's efforts, Mr. Khan's friends have launched a "Free Tahmid" Facebook group, and are calling on Bangladeshi authorities to reunite the young man with his family.
"All that you need to know is that he's one of the most amazing people you could ever meet in your life. He's very well-rounded, very good at soccer, very good with his guitar, and one of the most caring people I've ever met," a friend, who asked not to be identified to protect his privacy, said by e-mail. "He's one of my best friends, I just want to have him back."
Mr. Khan wants to work in public health and eventually in the development sector, his family and friends said. He has been enrolled at U of T since 2012 and is in his last year of an undergraduate program, with a major in global health and minors in anthropology and statistics. He is active in the university's Bangladeshi Students' Association, plays guitar and has acted in several plays.
Mr. Khan's ties to Canada go back about a decade. His parents, along with their two sons, immigrated here in about 2004, Mr. Irtisam said, before eventually returning to Bangladesh. He is a permanent resident of Canada; his older brother attends York University.
Mr. Khan's situation is being monitored by U of T officials, spokeswoman Althea Blackburn-Evans said.
"We are concerned about the events, we're watching them unfold, we're monitoring the situation, but we can't speculate on what's happening at the moment," she said. "We're waiting to see what happens.… There are certainly lots of conversations that are happening here and with others about what's occurred."
Mr. Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi Canadian suspected of having links to the attack, graduated from the University of Windsor in 2011 with a bachelor of science honours degree in chemistry, the institution confirmed. But fellow graduates in the same department, as well as members of the Muslim and Bangladeshi communities in Windsor, Ont., said they had virtually no recollection of Mr. Chowdhury and that he rarely attended the local mosque.
Muslim leaders expressed frustration over the shadow cast by one individual over the entire community.
"We are a community of 30,000 Muslims residing in Windsor-Essex County. When you have one or two bad apples, that doesn't make a significant statistic. It's a troubling statistic [and] we don't like it. We want to have zero statistics in terms of these bad apples," said Maher El-Masri, head of the Windsor Islamic Council.
The Windsor Police Service said it could not confirm whether Mr. Chowdhury was already known to the department or if he had been reported to the police by members of the Muslim community.
"What I can tell you is that we're aware of the recent information about him fighting overseas, but he hasn't been a resident in Windsor for years," Constable Andrew Drouillard said.
The RCMP said they only comment on cases when charges are laid.
The gruesome attack and subsequent bloody rescue operation left a total of 28 people dead, including the attackers. Most of the victims were foreigners – from Italy, Japan, India and the United States – but survivors told local TV that Muslims who could not recite the Koran were also killed.
Bangladesh authorities who monitor social media saw several messages on Friday posted on Twitter saying there would be an attack, said H.T. Imam, a political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
But the police thought any attack was more likely to target embassies and major hotels and restaurants, Mr. Imam said, adding that police closed major hotels and eateries in and around the Westin hotel, about a kilometre from the Holey Artisan Bakery.
"They [police] didn't think at all it can be this place," he said. "It is to be investigated whether there was an intelligence failure."
With reports from Affan Chowdhry and Reuters
Jill Mahoney