I told IO about harassment of my son

Jobeda Khatun, mother of petty criminal Joj Mia, yesterday told a Dhaka court that she narrated the whole story to the investigation officer of the August 21 grenade attack cases, regarding harassment of her son by ex-CID officials.

She said this while being cross-examined by Abdus Sobhan Tarafdar, a counsel for three former Criminal Investigation Department officials--Ruhul Amin, Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur Rahman.

According to the charge sheet, the ex-CID officials had cooked up a story and falsely implicated Joj Mia in the two cases. Joj Mia was later found innocent and released from jail after around three years.

As the lawyer could not complete cross-examining the witness the court fixed September 15 for the next hearing.

Earlier on Monday, Jobeda appeared before the same court and sought justice for her son's harassment.

Yesterday, among the total 52 accused, 33 including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujaheed, and Huji leader Mufti Abdul Hannan were produced before the court.

BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman and 18 others have been absconding.

The grenade attack on an Awami League rally killed 24 people, including late president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman, and injured over 300 others on August 21, 2004. AL chief and the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina survived the attack.