The fate of the August 21 grenade attack case has become uncertain due to its slow pace with the incumbent government nearing the end of its tenure.
The trial, which resumed formally after further investigation on April 23 last year against 52 accused, saw only 72 prosecution witnesses out of 491 testifying before court.
Only 12 of them had given their statements following the indictment. BNP senior vice chairperson, Tarique Rahman, and 29 others were mentioned in the supplementary charge sheet submitted on March 18, 2011.
The remaining 60 had testified in between October 29, 2008, when the trial first started, until its postponement on June 9 of that year.
Despite the slow process, the prosecution is hopeful that the trial of the sensational cases over the bomb attack on the Awami League rally in 2004 would end within this tenure.
“We are justice seekers. We hope if democracy and rule of law prevail in the future, nobody will stop the trial,” Chief Prosecutor Syed Rezaur Rahman said, blaming the defence lawyers for slowing down the case procedures.
However, a defence lawyer told theDhaka Tribune: “This government was not able to ensure justice as they became busy using this case to frame prominent political figures like Tarique Rahman, Lutfuzzaman Babar and Haris Chowdhury. They have hidden those actually responsible.”
About the allegation of delaying, he said: “We are not delaying. They [prosecution] could present only 11 witnesses after the so called fresh investigation. They delayed the process.”
Talking with the Dhaka Tribune a number of defence lawyers and prosecutors, preferring to be unnamed said the case would take a few years to be resolved at the present pace.
They also said they believed that if a BNP-led government takes office in the next tenure, the trial would be stopped because top leaders like BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s eldest son Tarique Rahman, former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, former prime minister’s political adviser Haris Chowdhury, and BNP lawmaker Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad have all been indicted in the case.
The latest charge sheet also marks Hawa Bhaban, Tarique’s office at that time, as the venue where the attack was plotted and he is accused of providing the attackers with administrative support.
Investigation officer of the case Abdul Kahar Akhand, who presented the latest charge sheet, declined to comment on the issue.
Today is the ninth anniversary of the carnage in which 24 were killed and over 200 others maimed. Grenades were hurled at an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, then opposition leader, was injured and late President Zillur Rahman’s wife Ivy Rahman was killed.
The then BNP-Jamaat-led alliance government formed a one-member commission of Justice Joynul Abedin the day after the attack. The commission submitted its report to the home ministry on October 2, 2004. The report was never made public.
It blamed the intelligence agency of “a big foreign power” that “helped the emergence of Bangladesh by secession from Pakistan with the oblique motive of making it a subservient state orchestrated this dastardly and mindless attack.”
The commission “could not identify the actual culprits and the masterminds behind the incident because of direct evidence and non-cooperation by the Awami League leaders.”
Later the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) cooked up the Joj Miah story by arresting 20 people and allegedly forcing them to admit to their ‘guilt’ before magistrates on June 26, December 12 and December 17 in 2005. George Miah, a vagabond from Noakhali, said in his statement that a 14-member team took part in the grenade attack.
The investigation took a new turn after the military-controlled interim regime grabbed power on January 11, 2007, when Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami’s operations commander Mufti Abdul Hannan, arrested on 1 October, 2005 in connection with the Ramna Batamul blast case, made a statement before a magistrate on 1 November, 2007.
In the statement, Hannan admitted that he was involved in the grenade attack and named 27 others, including former BNP state minister Abdus Salam Pintu, for being directly and indirectly involved in the planning and execution of the attack.
A charge sheet was submitted to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on June 11, 2008 against 22 people including Pintu, his two brothers Maulana Tajuddin and Maulana Liton, and Huji’s operations commander Mufti Hannan, in the two cases.
Of the 22, 14 are arrested including Pintu and Hannan. Among the eight fugitives, one is Moulana Tajuddin, younger brother of Pintu who allegedly has strong ties with Pakistan-based extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
After the assumption of office by the AL-led alliance on 6 January, 2009, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal ordered further investigation.
On August 13, 2009, the CID started a re-investigation with special police superintendent, Abdul Kahhar Akand, as head of the probe team. Kahhar, on July 3, 2011, pressed charges against 30 more people including the BNP stalwarts including Tarique Rahman, his cousin Saiful Islam Duke, the then state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar; five BNP leaders and a Jamaat-e-Islami leader.
