Gazipur: Former North South University teacher Hasnat Karim, who was acquitted of the charge over the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital, was released from jail here on Thursday afternoon.

He walked out of the Kashimpur High Security Jail around 4:30pm, said jailer Bikash Raihan.

His family members received him at the jail gate, reports the UNB.

A special tribunal of Dhaka on Wednesday accepted the charge-sheet against eight militants in a case filed over the 2016 militant attack on the Gulshan café and also ordered the release of Hasnat Karim.

Twenty-two people — nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi-born American and two Bangladeshis — were killed in the terror attack on the restaurant on July 1, 2016.

Hasnat Karim, also a businessman, was rescued along with 12 others during the commando operation at the Holey Artisan Bakery in the city’s Gulshan area on July 2 following a 12-hour hostage standoff. He along with his family had gone to the restaurant to celebrate the birthday of his daughter.

He was shown arrested in the case filed over the terror attack on August 13, 2016.