A Dhaka court dealing with the August 21 grenade attack case Sunday recorded statement of a police constable who was posted as a security guard at the government residence of an accused in the case, Abdus Salam Pintu, also a former BNP deputy minister.
Prosecution witness Ahsan Habib, 26, who was then under Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and now posted at Ashulia police station, earlier gave statement to the investigation officer under Section 161 on March 25, 2008.
Sunday, Habib said he had been posted at house 61, road 5/A of Dhanmondi from February 2003 to October 2006.
“It is a two-storeyed building. The drawing room of the house was on the left side of the entrance. The police members stayed at a semi-pacca house on the compound,” he said.
“During duty hours, I saw several times Pintu’s brother Maulana Tajuddin visiting the house. A number of visitors used to accompany him and they together sat on meetings in the drawing room. His other brothers did not visit the house normally,” the witness said adding that the accused attended all the meetings.
One or two days before the grenade attack, Maulana Tajuddin and a number of visitors came to the house and sat on a meeting around 10 or 11am. “But I did not hear what where they discussing about,” he said.
The court recorded the testimony of Habib as the 71th witness in the case.
On July 23, the court summoned a former DGFI official and three police constables to appear before it and give their statements in the case.
Among them, constables Habibur Rahman and Ahsan Habib gave their depositions. Another constable Al Mamun is set to testify today.
The date of recording statements of Manirul Islam, a sacked DGFI official, is yet to be fixed.
Earlier, the same court recorded statements of 70 prosecution witnesses, including complainant of the case. There are 493 prosecution witnesses in the case.
The attack was carried out while then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina was addressing a party rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004. Hasina narrowly escaped death with an ear injury but 24 leaders and workers, including late president Zillur Rahman’s wife Ivy Rahman, were killed and over 300 others injured. Two cases were filed in this connection one for murder and the other under explosives act.
Later, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) pressed charges accusing 52 people, including BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman and some other leaders of Jamaat and outlawed militant group Huji.
Thirty-three accused, including BNP leader Lutfozzaman Babar and Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and three former inspectors general of police, are in jail.
