On August 21, 2004, in a grenade attack on an Awami League rally, 24 people were killed and 300 others were injured while then leader of the opposition and today Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina narrowly survived.
In line with instructions he had been given by then CID special superintendent Ruhul Amin and assistant police superintendents Atiqur Rahman and Abdur Rashid, Jamal Ahmed, widely known as Joj Mia, made a ‘confessional’ statement before a magistrate on June 26, 2005, alleging that an underworld gang, the Seven-Star Group, led by Subrata Bain Shuvro, had carried out the grenade attack.
This is how the state machinery staged the Joj Mia drama on instructions from Lutfozzaman Babar, then state minister for home affairs, to derail the investigation into the August 21 grenade attack and divert it into a different path.
The petty criminal was arrested in 2005 from a remote village in Noakhali, but the law enforcers claimed that they had arrested him on June 10, 2005 from a slum in the capital’s Mohakhali. He was at his ancestral home in Noakhali when terrorists carried out the gruesome grenade attack of August 21.
Having served four years in jail, on July 26, 2009 he was declared innocent by the court and set free. Or was he?
After all that had happened to Joj Mia, happiness, dreams of a normal life, never again knocked on his door.
After getting released from jail, he lost both of his parents due to complex health issues, his first wife left him in fear that if the government changed, they would again get into trouble. It seemed his miseries had no end.
But two and a half years ago he got married for the second time, and became a father for the first time. Now this is all that he has left in his life, which is nothing short of a blockbuster thriller movie.
Recently, Dhaka Tribune’s Hasan Al Javed went to Narayanganj to have a conversation with Joj Mia in a bid to get a closer look into the thoughts, struggles and present-day life of a man whose face was on the front pages of every newspaper of the country 16 years ago.
When asked about his experience, he kept looking behind his shoulder during the whole conversation and requested the correspondent to change the location of the meeting. Explaining, Joj Mia said: “Those who made me Joj Mia may kill me if they ever come to power.
“This is why my first wife left me as she didn’t want to become a widow. I still get nightmares and wake up screaming my lungs out. In those dreams I see the police taking me with them and torturing me.”
“To be honest, I am always afraid that someone may come and attack me, kill me, as I exposed the real truth regarding the August 21 grenade attack after the Awami League came to power. This earned the opposition disgrace and shame both at home and abroad.
“Maybe they will take revenge on me someday. That is why I always keep my real identity hidden. I do not keep in touch with my relatives in the village. I used to wear a face mask even before Covid-19 happened. I always return home before the evening. I hide myself whenever I see a large number of people or strangers around me. It is as if my eyes have turned into those of detectives,” he added.
“Is this life?” Joj Mia asked in a plaintive manner.
Mentioning that his parents had to sell their ancestral home to free their son, Jos Mia said: “After the Awami League formed the government, I was able to get a driver’s job at a private TV channel but had to resign as my identity got revealed.
“Amidst all this, in 2010, my father died. Then I, along with my old mother, sister and first wife, moved to Narayanganj’s Signboard area.”
“A few years ago my mother died from kidney disease. Then my first wife left me; even my sister started living on her own. I lost everyone near and dear to me. I felt as though I was at sea.
“But I didn’t lose hope. I know that the days ahead can be more terrifying. I am constantly trying to turn my luck around by working as a labourer. I have been married for the past two and a half years and have a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. I always try to not remember my past for her,” said Joj Mia, witness to one of the darkest periods in the history of the country.
He said: “ I am now involved with Jubo League politics. I get Tk16,000 as salary every month in my new job. But a big chunk of that gets spent on my meds and house rent.
“I am still suffering from the injuries sustained during police torture. My right hand that broke didn’t recover. I get fired all the time. Wherever I go, people recognize me. They don’t want to hire me out of fear. Thus, I am going through financial hardship.”
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave Tk2 lakh for my mother’s treatment. For that I am grateful to her. The premier helps so many people but I didn’t get anything. I don’t have a safe and secure life. I urge the prime minister to look to me at least,” he added.
Recalling the August 21 attack, Joj Mia said: "I was at Babul's tea shop at home that day. I was watching the news of the grenade attack on television and talking to people about that. The village elders were also present that day when I was there. But a few days later I saw myself becoming a key witness of the case filed after the attack while being at Noakhali.”
Regarding his work at Gulistan, Joj Mia Mia said: “At that time I used to be a fruit hawker in Motijheel. Sometimes I used to sell posters in the stadium market area. Every two or three months I would go back home in Noakhali. I was also at home on the fateful day of August 21.
“But, seven to eight months after the attack, police arrested me from my home. The village chowkidar came to my house and informed me that there had been a case lodged against me. You stay where you are, he told me. Then SI Kabir came and arrested me.”
“The local member, when he saw me handcuffed, asked then SI Kabir about what had happened but he did not respond. After being taken to the police station, the SI told me that then CID ASP Abdur Rashid was coming from Dhaka. He told me that there was a big case lodged against me,” said Joj Mia.
Recalling that day, Joj Mia said: “That night then CID ASP Rashid came to the Senbagh police station and asked, ‘Where is Joj Mia?’
“I then was taken out of the lockup. I was blindfolded with a towel. All the policemen of the police station were asked out. Then I was told the names of a few people and was instructed to say that I knew them. After that then CID ASP Rashid told me that I had escaped from Dhaka after carrying out the August 21 grenade attack. I said that I was in Noakhali when the attack took place. But they didn't listen to a word that I said.”
When asked why he had testified, he said: “Then CID ASP Rashid tortured me a lot. At one point he told me that I would be put into crossfire if I didn't comply. He said that my family would be compensated for this and he would bear their expenses.
“My right hand broke as a result of the torture. Then I was brought to Dhaka. I told the court whatever I was taught. I confessed to save my life.”
The CID officials used to pay Joj Mia’s mother Tk2,000 every month as compensation.
“No one looks out for me throughout the year but whenever there is August 21 around the corner, you people [journalists] come.
“It would have been better if I had got the death sentence in the grenade attack case. I have lost everything for this,” Joj Mia said.
