After a 13-year long wait, the trial of a terror attack that killed 8 people and injured 50 others at a public rally of Communist Party Bangladesh at Paltan Maidan, has finally begun.
The attack took place at a time when little was known about the underground activities of militant outfits in the country and their fanatic movement to establish Shariah law using acts of terror.
Thirteen militants of banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji) had been made accused of orchestrating the CPB rally attack.
A Dhaka Court yesterday framed the charges against 13 Huji activists in two cases filed regarding the attack.
Additional Metropolitan Session’s Judge KM Imrul Kayes farmed the charges in presence of 5 accused after rejecting the discharge petitions filed by the defense counsels.
The court framed the charges under Section 302/324/326/307/120(b) and Section 34 of the penal code in the murder case. For the murder case, the court fixed September 14 for prosecution witnesses to testify before it.
Meanwhile, the court also fixed September 4 for the hearing for charge framing of the case under the explosives act.
Among the accused, five militants including Mufti Hannan were produced before the court from jail.
All of the accused claimed themselves innocent and sought justice when Additional Public Prosecutor Assaduzzama Khan read out the charges in front of them.
Earlier, defense counsels mentioned in their discharge plea that the incident occurred in 2001 and the investigation officer submitted the charge sheet in 2002 after the Explosive Substances Act law was amended.
‘‘The court could not trial the case after the corrected version of the law which has been amended after the incident. This is against the ethics of the spirit of the law,” the defense counsels said.
After hearing the plea, the court decided to pass order in later after the scrutiny of the document.
On January 20, 2001, eight people were killed and over 50 injured in a terrorist attack on a CPB rally. CPB leaders Himangshu Mondol, Abdul Majid, Abul Hashem and Mukter Hossain died on spot. Chhatra Union leader Biprodash died in hospital later. On November 27, 2013, investigation officer Mrinal Kanti Saha submitted charge sheets accusing Huji for the attack mentioning 137 witnesses.
The accused will face charges in two cases – one for killing eight people and the other under Explosive Substances Act.
CPB’s the then president Manzurul Ahsan Khan, who filed the cases with Motijheel police station, alleged that a group of anti-state conspirators had carried out the attack which took place during the first tenure of Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League (AL) government.
Two years later, during the regime of BNP-Jamaat led four party alliance government, the CID had submitted a final report on December 17, 2003 accusing none.
On January 27, 2005, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) asked the authorities to re-investigate the matter following a petition for fresh probe into the cases.
Among the 13 accused, Mufti Hannan, Mufti Mainuddin Khaja alias Abu Jandal, Arif Hasan Suman, Maulana Sabbir Hossain, Shawkat Osman and Md Moshiur Rahman are now in jail.
The seven others on the run were Maulana Abdul Hai, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Jahangir Alam Badar, Nurul Islam, Mohibul Muttakim, Anisul Morsalin and Rafiqul Islam Miraj.
Involvement of Huji with the CPB rally blast surfaced nine and a half years after the attack when Jandal had shouldered responsibility of the attack during a judicial confessional statement.
In his statement, Jandal said the Huji men had carried out bomb attack on the CPB rally where five people were killed. While escaping, the attackers exploded another bomb at Bangabandhu Avenue that killed three people, including two hawkers.
Huji chief Mufti Hannan is also an accused of being involved with the August 21 grenade attack case and the Ramna Batamul blast case.
