In a T-shirt emblazoned with a red maple leaf, Tahmid Khan was led to a Bangladeshi court Sunday, where a judge authorized police to continue holding the University of Toronto student in connection with a deadly café attack claimed by ISIS that killed 20 hostages.
The six-day extension comes approximately one week after Bangladeshi police announced that the 22-year-old had been arrested, seeking permission from the court to question him along with British national Hasnat Karim, 47, for 10 days.
Friends and family of the Canadian permanent resident have vigorously maintained that Khan has been in police custody since the July 1 attack and is innocent.
“They don’t have to articulate to the court what the suspicion is, whether they have any evidence,” lawyer Marlys Edwardh told CBC News of the Bangladeshi authorities.
“They’re not obliged to do anything more than saying, ‘We have a suspicion and we’d like a few more days to investigate.’ That’s what happened today.”
The development follows photos published in a Bangladeshi media outlet apparently showing Khan holding a gun on the rooftop of the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant along with one of the suspects in the attack. Security forces would later storm the restaurant on July 2, killing the gunmen and rescuing the remaining 13 hostages.
‘Playing detective in their heads’
Edwardh, along with Khan’s friends, says the photos were released without context but in fact only confirm what hostages saw that night.
Photos published in a local Bangladeshi media outlet apparently show Khan holding a gun on the rooftop of the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant along with one of the suspects in the July 1 attack. (Dhaka Tribune)
Multiple reports have emerged from hostages who were inside the café on the night of the attack describing Khan as having been ordered to pick up one of the guns by the attackers. (Dhaka Tribune)
Multiple reports have emerged from hostages who were inside the café on the night of the attack that Khan was ordered to pick up one of the guns by the attackers. The New York Times and Guernica magazine both cite unnamed sources that describe Khan as being in tears while being forced to hold the weapon before being led upstairs.
“People see this picture, they’re jumping to conclusions, sort of playing detective in their heads thinking that they know more about the investigation,” University of Toronto student Josh Grondin said.
“Anyone that has known him for five seconds knows that he’s not capable of doing something like this…. To have people who don’t know him think so poorly of him, it’s just very hard to see someone that you love so much go through something like this.”
A leading body-language expert from the United Kingdom who conducted an analysis of the photos for Bangladeshi paper the Dhaka Tribune, found Khan’s stance consistent with someone “vulnerable, submissive and extremely fearful for their life.”
‘Something that could happen to any of us’
“Tahmid’s body language is clearly sending non-verbal signs of fear, vulnerability and submissiveness. His hands are crossed in front of the body to form a barrier and the wrist is held as an attempt to self-pacify,” India Ford wrote in her analysis.
Ford also points to Khan’s apparent lack of familiarity with how to hold a gun and seeming shock, walking in what she describes as a confused and disoriented manner.
His only crime: “To be in the wrong place, at the wrong time… something that could happen to any of us,” Ford concluded.
For Edwardh, who maintains Khan only arrived in Bangladesh that morning to visit his parents for Eid, the analysis is consistent with what she knows of the 22-year-old.
Two of Khan’s friends, Josh Grondin (right) and Rusaro Nyinawumwami (left), published a letter in the U of T’s Varsity student newspaper recently painting him as a typical student who plays guitar, sings and plays soccer. (CBC)
“Has he had any military training? No. Has he ever had any interest in weapons? No… The man who was there loves his guitar, not weapons,” she said of Khan, the brother of her client and Canadian citizen Talha Khan.
“There is not, really, from our perspective a remote chance or possibility he’s connected to what happened at the bakery, other than being one of the hostages.”
‘Not surprised’ at hostages’ accounts
It’s a refrain echoed by friend Rusaro Nyinawumwami, who travelled with Khan to Italy in 2013 on a summer abroad trip through the university, from which he was set to graduate next year.
Marlys Edwardh told CBC News Sunday that Bangladeshi authorities can continue holding Khan without articulating to the court what their suspicion is or whether they have any evidence. (CBC)
Nyinawumwami and Grondin, who are behind a social media campaign in support of Khan, argue their friend’s actions on the rooftop on the night of the attack were a testament to his bravery, suggesting that by agreeing to the hostage-takers’ demands he helped to secure the release of the others held inside.
“We’re not surprised at the hostages’ accounts. That’s exactly how we know Tahmid to be,” Nyinawumwami said, adding Khan is “forward thinking, very open-minded, a feminist, a student.”
“He is one of us,” she said.
That’s in part why she and Grondin hope the Canadian government will continue to push for Khan to receive a fair trial, which they hope will only confirm what they believe really happened that night.
‘The world is watching’
The federal government has confirmed that officials have been in contact with Bangladeshi authorities about the case, but says there are limits on what it can do in any case involving someone who’s not a Canadian citizen.
“If this were remotely connected to Canadian legal proceedings, there would be not a doubt in my mind for a second that he’d be walking out the door,” Edwardh said, acknowledging the limitations.
Edwardh has called on the University of Toronto to write a letter in support of Khan to the Bangladeshi High Commissioner in Ottawa and the university has confirmed it will be submitting a letter Monday.
In the meantime, she hopes the federal government will continue to do what it can to secure Khan’s release.
“I am very hopeful that they will continue to send a message to the Bangladeshi authorities which is nothing less than, ‘the world is watching.'”