Former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria was assassinated in a grenade attack in January 27, 2005 at Sylhet’s Boidder Bazar during the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government.
Seventeen years on, justice remains elusive in the murder of the senior Awami League leader, with the family alleging that the incumbent government was manipulating the trial, trying the hide the identities of the actual killers.
The investigation in the case dragged on for 10 years until November 2014, Sylhet range Senior Superintendent of Police Meherunnesa Parul filed a charge sheet against 32 people.
The Sylhet Speedy Trial Tribunal indicted the accused in September next year.
However, in the nearly seven years that the trial took off, the court has recorded the depositions of only 44 witnesses out of the 171.
“Five witnesses are summoned at a time,” Special Public Prosecutor Ahmed Chowdhury Abdal said when asked about the slow-paced trial.
According to him, the summons of the witnesses is currently pending and another date to record the depositions have been scheduled for February 23.
Moreover, three of the accused-Mufti Abdul Hannan, Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul and Delwar Hossain Ripon have been executed in other cases while former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia’s political affairs advisor, Haris Chowdhury, one of the prime accused, has passed away, he said.
Kibria’s son, Dr Reza Kibria, the convenor of Gana Odhikar Parishad alleges that the Awami League government is unwilling to let a fair trial take place.
“We just don’t want a trial. We want a fair trial,” he said, claiming that justice under the incumbent regime is highly unlikely.
According to him, the government was influencing the charge sheet in the case and pressuring the family to accept it.
“This whole case is a fraudulent one just to hide the identities of the actual killers,” he said, adding that the government was protecting them.
He alleged that several people accused are innocent. “We have come to know the identities of the killers through several sources. They know that I know but it’s not possible to say everything now without documents.”
Kibria was killed in a grenade attack following a rally after the Eid congregation on January 27, 2005.
His nephew Shah Manzurul Huda, Awami League leader Abdur Rahim, Abul Hossain and Siddik Ali were also killed with hundreds of Awami League leaders and activists injured.
Abdul Majid Khan, organizing secretary of the Habiganj district wing of the Awami League later filed two separate cases under the Penal Code and the Explosives Act.
