of the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on 21 August, 2004 has yet been held nor have the identities of the masterminds and the source of the grenades been ascertained, as the story of the gruesome attack continues to change with the change of government.
The then Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government formed a one-member commission of Justice Joynul Abedin the day after the attack on an AL rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on 21 August, 2004, that killed 24 people, including Mahila Awami League's president Ivy Rahman, and maimed and wounded scores of others, including Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, now the prime minister.
The commission submitted its report to the home affairs ministry on 2 October, 2004 with 14 short- and 7 long-term recommendations. The report has never been made public.
According to the report, a copy of which has been made available to New Age, the intelligence agency of 'a big foreign power' that 'helped the emergence of Bangladesh by secession from Pakistan with the oblique motive of making it a subservient state…orchestrated this dastardly and mindless attack'.
'The operation was carried out by hired goons who mainly comprised the armed cadres of an organisation having familiarity with and access to most of the crowd in the rally,' the report said. 'The Awami League leaders were not, however, aware of this design nor had they any hand in it.'
'The commission has not been able to identify the actual culprits,' the report said, 'but it has nevertheless been able to identify the masterminds behind the incident.'
The report attributes the commission's failure to identify the real culprits to 'the lack of direct evidence, and this was substantially contributed (sic) by the open and consistent non-cooperation by the Awami League leaders'.
The Supreme Court Bar Association had instituted an independent committee to investigate the attack, which published its report on 27 February, 2005 without identifying the perpetrators of the attack.
The report attributes the committee's failure to identify the culprits to lack of access to the reports of the intelligence agencies and lack of cooperation by the government.
The committee demanded that the government should publish all the reports of investigations of and inquiries into all grenade or bomb attacks and seizure of illegal arms within a month.
The BNP government had then asked for help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol but their findings have never been made public.
Police sub-inspector Faruk Hossain and Awami League leaders Abdul Jalil and Saber Hossain Chowdhury filed three First Information Reports on the grenade attack on the rally with the Motijheel police.
The Criminal Investigation Department took charge of the investigation into the grenade attack on 23 August, 2004, two days after the attack.
The CID appointed assistant superintendent Abdur Rashid as the investigation officer and special superintendent Ruhul Amin as the supervisor.
Rashid arrested 20 people and allegedly forced George Miah, Abul Hahem Rana and Shafiqul Islam to admit their 'guilt' before magistrates on June 26, December 12 and December 17 in 2005.
George Miah, a vagabond from Noakhali, reportedly said in his statement that a 14-member team took part in the grenade attack after being instructed by alleged top criminals Tanvirul Islam Joy and Subrata Bain, who were reportedly hiding in India, and the 14 persons, including George, were paid Tk 5,000 each for the operation.
After Rashid's retirement, Munshi Atiqur Rahman was appointed investigation officer of the cases on 24 December, 2005.
The investigation took a new turn after the military-controlled interim regime grabbed power on 11 January, 2007, when Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami's operations commander Mufti Abdul Hannan, arrested on 1 October, 2005 in connection with the Ramna Batamul blast case, made a statement before a magistrate on 1 November, 2007.
In the statement, Hannan reportedly admitted that he was involved in the grenade attack and named 27 others, including former BNP state minister Abdus Salam Pintu, for being directly and indirectly involved in the planning and execution of the attack.
CID's assistant superintendent of police Fazlul Kabir on 11 June, 2008, during the military-controlled interim government's regime, submitted two charge-sheets to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, pressing charges against 22 people, including Pintu, his two brothers Maulana Tajuddin and Maulana Liton, and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami's operations commander Mufti Abdul Hannan, in the two cases.
The trial of the grenade attack case under the Explosive Substances Act began on 29 October, 2008 with the court framing charges against the 22 accused.
After the assumption of office by the AL-led alliance on 6 January, 2009, the cases took a new turn as the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal, after recording the depositions of 61 prosecution witnesses, ordered further investigation of the cases on 3 August, 2009.
The court passed the order after hearing a petition filed on 25 June, 2009 by the prosecution, seeking further investigation on the plea that the earlier investigations had failed to identify the masterminds and the source of the grenades used in the attack, and had not identified the whereabouts of the grenades seized at the spot.
On 13 August, 2009, the CID started reinvestigation with special police superintendent Abdul Kahhar Akand as head of the probe team.
Kahhar on 3 July, 2011, pressed charges against 30 more people, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's eldest son Tarique Rahman, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami's detained secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, former prime minister's political adviser Haris Chowdhury, current BNP lawmaker Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad, four retired army officers and eight former police officers in the two cases of the grenade attack.
The two supplementary charge-sheets were submitted to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court after the three-month reinvestigation.
The investigation officer pressed charges against Major General (retired) ATM Amin, former director general of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Major General (retired) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and Brigadier (retired) General Abdur Rahim, former directors of the National Security Intelligence, Lieutenant Commander (retired) Saiful Islam Duke, former navy official and also Khaleda Zia's nephew, and Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Saiful Islam Joarder, former DGFI official.
Charges were also pressed against M Ashraful Huda and Shahidul Haque, former inspectors general of police, Khodabaksh Chowdhury, who was then additional inspector general of the CID, Khan Sayeed Hasan and Obaidur Rahman, former deputy commissioners of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and Md Ruhul Amin, Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur Rahman, former investigation officers of the cases.
The investigation officer also pressed charges against Md Ariful Islam, Dhaka city's ward commissioner, and transport owner Md Hanif, along with Sheikh Abdus Salam, Pakistani citizen Md Abdul Majed Butt (also known as Md Yusuf Butt), Abdul Malek (also known as Golam Mohammad), Abdur Rauf (also known as Abu Omar Abu Hussain or Peer Saheb Baba), Shabbir Ahmed (also known as Abdul Hannan Shabbir), Shawkat Osman (also known as Sheikh Farid), Hafez Yahia, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hai and Ratul Babu, all of whom allegedly had links with militants.
The charge-sheet said that the attack had been masterminded at Hawa Bhaban, Tarique's office at that time, by Tarique and others.
Tarique also provided the attackers with administrative support, it claimed.
Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge Md Zahurul Haque on August 11 ordered publication of a second newspaper advertisement, asking Tarique Rahman and 11 others to surrender to the court by August 25 in connection with the case, filed under the Explosive Substances Act.
If they fail to surrender by August 25, the trial against them will continue in their absence, said the court.
In another case, filed on murder charges, the chief metropolitan magistrate on August 16 sent the case docket to the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge's court after completing all legal measures for starting its trial.
Source : New Age
