The nation is all set to mourn the victims of the gruesome attack on a rally in Dhaka on Friday, re-living the painful memories of the incident that took place 16 years ago.
At least 24 people were killed and around 300 injured when grenades were lobbed on an Awami League rally in the capital’s Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.
Incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader in parliament, narrowly escaped the attack with an ear injury.
Overcoming all legal barriers, in a landmark verdict, a Dhaka court on October 10, 2018 awarded capital punishment to 19 people, including former state minister Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu in two cases filed over the attack.
The court also awarded life term imprisonment to 19 people, including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, BNP chief and former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury and former BNP lawmaker Qazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad while 11 others were awarded jail terms of various duration.
HC yet to start hearing of death sentence, appeals
Almost two years have passed since the delivery of verdicts but the High Court is yet to start hearing the death references and appeals filed by the convicts in the two cases.
Court sources said the hearing on death references and appeals were delayed as the paper-book was not ready to begin the hearing in the cases. But, the paper-book arrived in the High Court from the Bangladesh Government Press on Sunday, clearing the way for the HC to start hearing the death references and appeals in these cases.
Now the chief justice will send the death references and appeals to a High Court bench for hearing and disposal.
A paper-book records all the details of a case, trial proceedings, verdicts, and other documents, including statements and evidence. A paper-book is necessary for the High Court to hear and dispose of a death reference or appeal.
While talking to Dhaka Tribune, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the government will take necessary steps for an early hearing and disposing of the death references and appeals in these cases.
“There were efforts to halt trial proceedings as well as to save the real culprits in the cases. So, we think the hearing of the cases should be held on a priority basis. We will also move the court to hold these hearings on a priority basis,” he said.
“No other country in the world has carried out such a massacre to wipe out a political party,” said the chief state lawyer.
In October, 2018, Judge Shahed Nuruddin of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 handed down the verdict in the cases.
After the death reference reached the HC, the convicts, now in jail, filed separate appeals with the HC challenging the trial court verdict.
On January 13 last year, the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman accepted the appeals for hearing.
During delivery of the verdict, the court stated that rivalry between the ruling and the opposition parties is inevitable in politics, but it is utterly unacceptable that attempts will be made to make the opposition leaderless.
"General people don't want such politics," said the judge.
“In politics, inevitably there will be a myriad of disputes between the ruling party and the opposition, but trying to eliminate leaders of the opposition is not acceptable,” he said.
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The court observed that in a democratic nation, the party in state power must make the utmost efforts to consolidate democracy by adopting a liberal policy towards the opposition.
“For the party in power to try to gain political advantage by killing opposition leaders is not indicative of democratic thought,” the judge said.
“The public does not want this. They want to understand a party’s policy, ideology, and plans by participating in their rally and processions. The public will turn away from politics if throwing grenades to kill political leaders and common people become a trend.”
The court said, with the secret code “Sheikh Hasina will be served a light breakfast”, some home-grown militants with the help of international militant groups launched the attack.
It also observed that the grenade attack was meant to eliminate top Awami League leaders from politics, and that local militants actively participated in that attack.
With assistance of international militants and state machinery, the perpetrators directed Arges grenades-- normally used in warfare--in broad daylight, on a political rally in the heart of the country’s capital.
The judge put forward some questions – “Why was such a lethal weapon used?”
“Does politics mean carrying out a heinous attack on an opposition party? not just a mere attack, it was an attempt to make a party leaderless.”
Before delivering the verdict, the court recorded testimonies of 225 out of 511 prosecution witnesses and 20 defence witnesses in the cases.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on June 11, 2008, submitted a charge-sheet against 22 people, including chief of Bangladesh chapter of militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad-al-Islami (huji) Mufti Abdul Hannan.
But Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 on August 3, 2009, ordered further investigation, accepting a plea of the prosecution.
Later on in 2011, CID submitted two separate supplementary charge sheets in the cases against 30 people after a fresh investigation into the matter. With the 30, the number of charge-sheeted accused in the cases rose to 52.
During the BNP-Jamaat regime till October 2006, the investigators were trying to divert the probe to a wrong direction to save the real culprits. Media reports on the cooked-up story of Joj Mia were brought to public attention by the then CID officials’ attempt to derail the investigation.
According to the deposition, the perpetrators carried out the grenade attack when the BNP was in power and the then government put in all kinds of efforts to protect the masterminds behind the heinous attack, which was allegedly plotted to assassinate Sheikh Hasina.
A further probe in the cases revealed that the attack was an outcome of collaboration among militants, influential leaders of the BNP-Jamaat, and a number of senior officials of the home ministry, police, DGFI, NSI, and Hawa Bhaban.
Huji leaders met BNP leader Tarique Rahman a few days before the grenade attack and got the go-ahead to carry out the blasts. The then BNP-led administration did not pay attention to the international community’s pressure for a fair investigation into the incident, said the charge sheets.
