DHAKA (THE DAILY STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Militants involved in the Dhaka cafe attack offered to free Bangladeshi Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain but he chose to remain with the friends with whom he had gone to the Holey Artisan Bakery last Friday (July 1).

He and his two female friends were among the 20 hostages who were killed during the 12-hour-long cafe siege.

A student at Emory University in Atlanta, Mr Hossain went to the restaurant with his friends - Ms Abinta Kabir, a US citizen and also a student of Emory University, and Ms Tarishi Jain, an Indian student at the University of California, Berkeley.

When the captors came to know about the women's citizenship, they refused to release them. They however allowed Mr Hossain to go, according to a freed hostage.

Businessman Rezaul Karim, whose son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren were taken hostage but later freed, told The Daily Star: "My daughter-in-law told me that she heard a Bangladeshi youth refused to leave the restaurant when militants offered to free him."

"They wouldn't let two of his friends go," he said.

News of Mr Hossain's courage has earned him respect on social media. Many have flooded Facebook with tributes to the 20-year-old.

Mr Hossain, the grandson of Mr Latifur Rahman, chairman of Transcom Group, returned to Dhaka on May 18 for his summer holidays.