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21 August Grenade attack verdict should be delivered soon

Amirul Islam || risingbd.com

Published: 13:08, 21 August 2016   Update: 15:18, 26 July 2020
21 August Grenade attack verdict should be delivered soon

The grenade attack on the rally of the then opposition Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue was carried out on August 21, 2004, leaving 24 leaders and activists, including Awami League women affairs secretary and wife of late President Zillur Rahman Ivy Rahman, dead and about 500 others injured. The grenade attack was the most stigmatised and tainted chapter in the country’s political history.

A dark reactionary force carried out the attack on the day. Although 11 years have elapsed since the incident, trial of the heinous August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally is still to be completed which is regrettable for a democratic country.

The rally was organised in front of the Awami League party office at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, protesting the series bomb attack across the country and police torture in Gopalganj in 2004.

The attack was carried out on the Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue during the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami government’s tenure in 2004. Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister who then was the opposition leader, was the chief guest of the rally. She was getting off the truck used as the dais when the assailants charged the grenades. At least 13 grenades were thrown from the rooftops of a nearby building soon after she finished her speech. But Sheikh Hasina got a narrow escape that day.

The grenade attack on the rally of the then opposition Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue was made on August 21, 2004, leaving 24 leaders and activists, including Awami League women affairs secretary and wife of late President Zillur Rahman Ivy Rahman, dead and about 500 others injured.

Two cases were filed in connection with the August 21 grenade attack -- one under the Explosive Substances Act and the other for murder of people.

The first three investigation officers -- CID Special Superintendent Ruhul Amin, and two ex-CID ASPs Munshi Atiqur Rahman and Abdur Rashid -- are accused of attempts to divert the investigation by showing a vagabond, ‘Joj Mia’, as the attacker. Mia is a witness of the case now.

On June 9, 2008, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) pressed charges against BNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and 20 others in the cases. The trial began in the same year. In the meantime, AL formed the government in 2009 and submitted petitions on August 3, 2009 for further investigation into the cases.

Following the petitions, the court ordered the CID for further investigation into the cases. Later on July 3, 2011, the CID submitted supplementary charge sheets against 30 people, including BNP senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman, former State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar, BNP leader Harris Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.

On March 18, 2012, the court framed charges against Tarique and others. The second trial commenced on the following month. The trial against 52 accused in the two cases is being held simultaneously with Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 at the makeshift court at a building near the gate of Dhaka Central Jail.

Last week prosecutors said the verdict of the case may be delivered next month. We want to be assured with this statement. We want that those involved in the August 21 grenade attack directly and indirectly be tried.

risingbd/Dhaka/Aug 21, 2016/Shahed/Amirul

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