Aug 21 grenade attack: 20yrs on, justice not served yet

Uncertainty looms over quick delivery of a High Court judgement in the August 21, 2004, grenade attack cases as the hearing on appeals and death references has recently been halted.

It has not been specified when the HC will resume the hearing and the verdict will be delivered as the bench concerned of the HC dropped the case from its list of matters to hear.

The hearing is very unlikely to resume before October 20, when the court reopens after its annual vacation.

The horrifying grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue claimed 24 lives and left about 300 injured.

Then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, who later ran the country for 15 years as prime minister and was forced to resign and flee on August 5 following a mass uprising, narrowly escaped the attack on this day 20 years ago.

The then BNP-led alliance government had the case investigated, but the probe was farcical as senior CID officials cooked up a story involving one Joj Mia.

They detained the man from Noakhali, along with 20 petty criminals, and forced Joj Mia and two others to make confessional statements.

During the caretaker government rule after the January 11, 2007, changeover, the CID submitted two charge sheets in two cases accusing 22 people, including Huji chief Mufti Hannan and BNP leader and former deputy minister for education Abdus Salam Pintu.

One of the cases was filed under the Explosive Substances Act while the other was for murder.

The trial began after charges were framed against them in October 2007 and the court recorded testimonies of 61 prosecution witnesses.

After the AL assumed power in January 2009, the prosecution appealed for further probe and the court in August that year issued the order for it and a new investigation officer was assigned.

The CID in July 2011 submitted a supplementary charge sheet, accusing 30 more people, including BNP acting chairperson Tarique Rahman and Lutfozzaman Babar, state minister for home 2001-2006.

A Dhaka court on October 10, 2018, sentenced 19 people, including Babar to death, in the two cases.

Nineteen others, including Tarique, were given life imprisonments and 11 people were handed different terms in prison.

The convicts included former top officials of police, DGFI, NSI, CID, and top militants of Huji.

While delivering the verdicts in the two cases, the court observed that it was a well-orchestrated attack executed abusing state power.

Eighteen convicts are absconding and 31 are in jail.

The death references of the cases reached the HC on November 27, 2018, for examination of the trial court's verdict.

On January 13, 2019, the HC accepted the appeals filed by the convicts for hearing.

The HC bench of Justice Shahidul Karim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman has so far held hearings on death references and appeals for around 100 working days since December 5, 2022.

A lawyer, who was involved in the cases, recently told The Daily Star that the HC could have concluded the hearings on the appeals and death references this month if it could have heard those continuously.

The last hearing on the cases was held on August 1, the lawyer said.

Contacted on Monday, Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman, who was appointed on August 8, told The Daily Star that the HC bench led by Justice Shahidul Karim on August 18 dropped the cases from its hearing list as its junior judge was assigned to another bench.

"When the court reopens [after its annual vacation], I will examine the relevant papers and documents and decide on the cases," the AG said.

He, however, said, "The cases will be in the hearing list after the annual vacation."

The Appellate and High Court divisions of the Supreme Court are scheduled to go into its annual vacation on September 6 and reopen on October 20.

HC sources said for 61 days, the prosecution read out from books case details, trial proceedings, statements, evidence, verdicts, and other documents before the HC bench.

The defence lawyers for 24 out of the 49 convicted placed their arguments for 30 days until June 12 this year.

After concluding the hearings, the HC bench will deliver a verdict on the death references and the appeals. When the HC releases the full text of its verdict, the state and defence would have the opportunity to appeal before the Appellate Division.

A few years may be required after that for the Appellate Division to dispose of the appeals. Both parties will then have the option to move review petitions challenging the apex court judgement.