DHAKA, Aug 20, 2020 (BSS) – The 16th anniversary of the gruesome
grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) anti-terrorism rally in the
capital on August 21, 2004 will be observed tomorrow with heavy
hearts.
The gruesome grenade attack was carried out at an anti-terrorism
rally of Awami League (AL) on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on
August 21, 2004 aiming to bankrupt the party leadership during the
BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
With the grace of the Almighty, the then opposition leader and
incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other front ranking AL
leaders narrowly escaped the carnage.
But, 24 people including the then Women Affairs Secretary of Awami
League and wife of late President Zillur Rahman were killed and over
500 others injured in the attack and many of them became crippled for
life.
Those others killed in the barbaric grenade attack included the then
opposition leader’s personal security guard Lance Corporal (retd)
Mahbubur Rashid, Abul Kalam Azad, Rezina Begum, Nasir Uddin Sardar,
Atique Sarkar, Abdul Kuddus Patwari, Aminul Islam Moazzem, Belal
Hossain, Mamun Mridha, Ratan Shikdar, Liton Munshi, Hasina Mamtaz
Reena, Sufia Begum, Rafiqul Islam (Ada Chacha), Mostaque Ahmed Sentu,
Md Hanif, Abul Kashem, Zahed Ali, Momen Ali, M Shamsuddin and Ishaque
Miah.
Prominent among those suffered serious splinter injuries included
Sheikh Hasina, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta,
Obaidul Quader, Advocate Sahara Khatun, Mohammad Hanif, Prof Abu
Sayeed, and AFM Bahauddin Nasim.
Marking the anniversary, the ruling AL, its front and associate
bodies and its left-leaning allies, and other political parties,
social-cultural and professional organisations have chalked out
elaborate programmes across the country, maintaining health guidelines
in wake of the COVID-19 situation.
As part of the programmes, AL and its associate bodies will place
wreaths at the altar in front of the party’s central office at
Bangabandhu Avenue at 9am tomorrow while central 14-party alliance as
well as Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JASAD) will place wreaths at the same
venue at 8.30am on the day.
Besides, Bangabandhu Gobeshona Parishad will pay homage to martyrs
of August 21 by placing wreaths at the altar in front of AL’s central
office at Bangabandhu Avenue at 9am and hold a discussion, milad and
doa mahfil at its central office in the city’s Purana Paltan area at
11 am on the same day.
The nation’s long wait seeking justice of the brutal grenade attack
that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 500 finally ended as a
special court pronounced the verdict of a case filed over the attack
on October 10, 2018.
The court awarded death sentence to 19 people including former Home
Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar and life imprisonment to 19 including
ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s fugitive son Tarique Rahman in connection
with the grenade attack.
With the verdict pronounced by Dhaka’s 1st Speedy Trial Tribunal
Judge Shahed Nur Uddin, the nation was freed from stigma of committing
most shocking crime in the political history.
Later, the lower court on November 27, 2018, sent a 37,385-page case
document including the judgment to the High Court for further
proceedings.
The High Court on January 13, 2019, accepted appeals filed by the
convicts in two cases filed over the August 21 grenade attack for
hearing.
Two separate cases, one for murder and another under Explosives
Substances Act were filed on August 22, 2004, and the police on June
9, 2008 submitted the charge sheet. The court on September 29, 2008,
framed charges in the case.
Investigation Officer and also Additional Deputy Inspector General
of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police on July 2, 2011,
submitted a supplementary charge sheet before the court and the court
on March 18, 2012, framed charges afresh after taking the new charge
sheet into cognizance.
Fifty two people were held accused in the case while prosecution
suggested an influential quarter of the then BNP regime including
party’s senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman masterminded its shocking
plot engaging militant outfit HuJI and subsequently made desperate
efforts to protect the assailants.
Three of the accused top HuJI leader Mufty Abdul Hannan, Sharif
Shahedul Bipul and then Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan
Mohammad Mujaheed, however, were by now executed after trial in other
cases.
A total of 31 accused including two former ministers faced the trial
in person while 18 including Tarique Rahman were tried in absentia as
they are believed to be staying abroad.
Tarique, now in London, and 17 others including several
intelligence officials were earlier declared “absconding” as they were
on the run to evade justice.
Eight suspects including three former police chiefs were on bail as
the trial was underway while the court on September 18, 2018, scrapped
their bail and ordered their confinement in jail with due facilities
they deserved under law.
The death penalty convicts were: Lutfuzzaman Babar, Salam Pintu,
Mawlana Tajuddin, intelligence officials Major General (retd) Rezzakul
Haider Chowdhury and Brigadier General Abdur Rahim, transport operator
Md Hanif, militants Mowlana Sheikh Abdus Salam, Abdul Mazed Bhat,
Abdul Malek, Shawkat Osman, Mohibullah, Abu Sayeed, Abul Kalam Azad,
Jahangir Alam, Hafez Abu Taher, Hossain Ahammed Tamim, Moin Uddin
Sheikh, Rafikul Islam and Md Uzzal.
Other than Rahman, the political figures who were handed down life
imprisonments were: ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s the then political
adviser Haris Chowdhury and former BNP lawmaker Qazi Shah Mofazzal
Hossain Kaikobad.
The others to serve the life term prison were militants Shahadat
Ullah alias Jewel, Abdur Rouf, Sabbir Ahmed, Arif Hasan, Hafez Yahia,
Abu Bokor, Ariful Islam, Mohibul Muttakin, Anisul Mursalin, Mohammad
Khalil, Jahangir Alam Badar, Mohammad Iqbal, Liton, Shafikur Rahman,
Abdul Hai and Ratul Ahmed Babu.
They all were also fined Taka 50,000 each in the case lodged under
the Explosive Substances Act.
The court also sentenced Lutfuzzaman Babar, Abdus Salam Pintu,
Mowlana Tajuddin, Major General (retd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury,
Brigadier General Abdur Rahim, Md Hanif, Mowlana Sheikh Abdus Salam,
Abdul Mazed Bhat, Abdul Malek, Mowlana Shawkat Osman, Mohibullah,
Mowalana Abu Sayeed, Abul Kalam Azad, Md Jahangir Alam, Hafez Mowlana
Abu Taher, Hossain Ahammed Tamim, Moin Uddin Sheikh, Md Rafikul Islam
and Md Uzzal to 20-year imprisonment and fined Taka 50,000 each in the
case lodged under the Explosive Substances Act.
In the same case, the court sentenced Tarique Rahman, Haris
Chowdhury, Qazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Kaikobad, Mufti
Shafikur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hai, Shahadat Ullah, Mowlana Abdur Rouf,
Mowlana Sabbir Ahmed, Arif Hasan, Hafez Mowlana Yahia, Abu Bokor,
Ariful Islam Arif, Mohibul Muttakin, Anisul Mursalin, Md Khalil,
Jahangir Alam Badar, Md Iqbal, Mowlana Liton, and Ratul Ahmed Babu to
20-year imprisonment and fined Taka 50,000 each.
During the BNP-Jamaat regime, the investigators were trying to
divert the probe to a wrong direction to save the real culprits. Media
reports brought to public attention the cooked-up story of Jorge Mia
by the then CID officials to derail the investigation.
The visible attempt to frustrate the case by the then BNP-led
regime prompted the subsequent interim government to order a fresh
investigation into the case.