Aug 21 Grenade Attack: Cries for justice on for 13 years

On this day 13 years ago, a grisly grenade attack left 24 Awami League leaders and activists dead. AL chief Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack carried out on her rally in the afternoon of August 21, 2004.

But the state has not yet been able to provide justice to the victims, alive or dead.

The counsels involved in the high-profile case have hinted that the court might deliver the verdict at the end of this year.

The Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 has already completed recording statements of 225 prosecution witnesses including the complainant of the case.

Asked, the chief state counsel in the case, Syed Rezaur Rahman, said the court might need three more months to complete the proceedings before announcing the verdict.

He added the court was recording statements of the defence witnesses.

After completion of the self-defence statements, the court would start hearing arguments from both the prosecution and the defence next month, he said.

"It may continue for next three months and then the cases will be ready for pronouncement of judgement," said Rezaur.

Talking to The Daily Star recently, TM Akbar, lawyer for former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and several other accused, said the judgement would be given this year.

However, delivery of the verdict would lead to further legal processes, he observed.

Once convicted, the accused would have the opportunity to challenge the verdict in the High Court and then in the Appellate Division in phases.

After the appeals are dissolved, an accused may still file a review petition with the Appellate Division. It would require more time for disposal of the pleas.

This means there is still a long way to go to complete the trial conclusively in order to provide the victims and their families with justice, according to legal experts.

Until then, the surviving victims and the families of those killed would have to wait in agony for justice.

EFFORTS MADE TO DERAIL INVESTIGATION

The grisly grenade attack was carried out during the BNP rule and the attackers left the venue without facing any hurdles.

The then BNP government allowed agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Interpol to visit Dhaka to assist the probe only when world leaders expressed grave concerns and there was international pressure.

After the attack, BNP launched a campaign blaming the AL itself for carrying out the attack on its own rally.

The BNP-led alliance government even tried to establish through several investigations that the AL had killed its own activists to tarnish the government's image.

As part a plan to pin the blame on the AL, the investigators coocked up a story involving one Mokhlesur Rahman, an AL leader and former ward commissioner of Moghbazar in the city.

On instructions of the government high-ups, they also attempted to feed the public with another story woven around one Joj Mia, a petty criminal.

They forced Joj Mia to make a confessional statement naming Mokhlesur as one of the plotters. The whole story turned out to be fabrication by the investigators.

Through a judicial commission led by a Supreme Court judge, it even tried to prove that "foreign enemies" had instigated the carnage and some wanted criminals hiding in India had taken part in it, according to the charge sheet.

However, things took a different turn during the past caretaker government led by Fakhruddin Ahmed. A new Criminal Investigation Department official was given the charge in July 2007 to conduct a fresh investigation into the carnage.

On June 11, 2008, the CID submitted charge sheet accusing 22, including Huji leader Mufti Hannan and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu. The charge sheet hinted at involvement of some government and security high-ups in the plot.

After the AL came to power, the prosecution filed a petition on June 22, 2009 with the court for further investigation to identify the suppliers of Arges grenades and sources of financing.

The court on August 3, 2009 ordered for further investigation, following which a new CID official was assigned to do the job.

In July 2011, the CID submitted the supplementary charge sheet. According to the supplementary charge sheet, the grisly attack was an outcome of collaboration between the militant outfit Huji, a section of influential leaders of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, and a section of senior officials of the home ministry, police, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), National Security Intelligence (NSI) and Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Lutfozzaman Babar, the then state minister for home affairs, Harris Chowdhury, political secretary to the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, secretary general of Jamaat and the then social welfare minister, NSI director general Brig Gen Abdur Rahim and DGFI director Brig Gen Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury masterminded the attack, according to the supplementary charge sheet. Involvement of Tarique Rahman was also alleged in it.

Jamaat leader Mojaheed was dropped from the charge after his execution in a war crimes case in November 2015.

According to the supplementary charge sheet, Huji leader Tajuddin, supplier of the grenades and brother of Abdus Salam Pintu, were allowed to leave the country for Pakistan on instructions from Babar. The then premier Khaleda Zia was aware of this, according to the charge sheet.

Tajuddin was provided with a fake passport with the name “Badal”. Khaleda's nephew and private secretary Saiful Islam Duke, his brother-in-law and the then DGFI official Lt Col Saiful Islam Joarder, and another DGFI official Maj Gen ATM Amin helped Tajuddin flee the country on October 10, 2006 at the fag end of the BNP rule, said the supplementary charge sheet in March 2011.

Three other accused -- Huji leaders Mufti Hannan and Shahedul Alam Bipul and Jamaat leader Mojaheed -- were executed in connection with a grenade attack on British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury and war crimes respectively.