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Interpol experts arrive today to help probe

Judicial commission starts investigation today

Staff Correspondent
T\vo Interpol expens will arrive in Dhaka today to help investigate the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally that killed 19 and injured over200 others.
It is also today that the one-member judicial commission formed by the government begins its
probe into the attack, as another inquiry committee, of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), started recording statements of tire injuredyesterday.
In the wake of repeated bomb blasts, sources said, the police headquarters has decided to form a 30-member bomb squad within a fewdays, f
INTERPOLEXPERTS
The two-member Interpol team comprising Geoffrey Isles, an officer of Australian Federal Police, and Jacqueline Polansk, a US private terrorism expert, will arrive at Zia International Airport by a Thai Airways flight at 11:55am today.
Inspector General of Police Shahudul Haque said, "The team
will visit the spot, speak to police, intelligence agencies and other people concerned."
"The experts will later prepare a report on their preliminary findings, based on which the Interpol will decide its follow-up actions," Haque added.
On the specific objective of the
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advance mission, the IGP said, "It is to decide what kind of investigators would be needed for thorough investigation into the incident."
Some other sources said the duo would hold talks with officials of the six intelligence agencies currently probing the attack and check grenade splinters and other evidence recovered from the spot.
Bangladesh Police on Friday formally sought help from the Interpol and informed the international police organisation about how many grenades were blasted, how many remained unexploded, their nature and the casualties.
SCEPTICISM ABOUT PROBE
Even with the Interpol experts coming to help out local investigators, many doubt whether the probe would make any significant breakthrough, as the investigators assigned in the case are the same who had failed to track down culprits behind previous explosions.
"Interpol don't have expertise like Scotland Yard or FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA) to find clue to such incidents in a country like Bangladesh. The state concerned has to do it," said former IGP Nurul Huda.
"They (Interpol) can help a country to stop cross-border women and children trafficking, money laundering, and arms and drugs smuggling, and by giving information of and arresting criminals hiding abroad," he said, emphasising, "They can help a country by giving information not by probing any incident there."
AL leaders, meanwhile, questioned the government's sincerity in tracking down the perpetrators of the attack claiming the investigators are not only insincere in their task, they are even pointing fingers at those who were the very targets of the attack.
"Adequate number of police were not deployed that day [August 21] at the meeting venue. And, instead of looking for the attackers after the blasts, they fired tear gas shells at our people," AL General SecretaryAbdul Jalil told The Daily Star last night.
"They've failed to arrest any of the culprits and are now destroying the evidence by opening the area to general people," he said.
Some AL leaders also doubted the suitability of seeking Interpol's help at such an early stage of investigation, while others thought it might be a ploy of the government to avoid responsibility. INVESTIGATORS BUSY IN MEETINGS The officials of Criminal Investigation Department, Rapid Action Battalion, Detective Branch and Special Branch of Police, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence and National Security Intelligence assigned to investigate the grenade attack were busy yesterday holding meetings.
Contacted over telephone in the afternoon, CID Special Superintendent Ruhul Amin, leader of the CID investigation team, declined to talk on the probe, saying they were in a meeting. But he could not be reached later by repeated attempts until 8:45 last night as his cell phones remained turned off.
The investigation officer of the case, CID Assistant Superintendent Abdur Rashid also kept his phone set off.
The investigation team however reported to collect some evidence yesterday and visited Muktijoddha Janata
League's office on the third floor of the AL headquarters building.
Sources said the investigators wanted to check whether there is any way to go from that office to any of the adjacent buildings, from where the grenades were thrown.
BOMB SQUAD TO BE FORMED
Bangladesh Police has planned to form a 30-member bomb-squad within a few days to probe bomb explosions from now on.
Members of the squad will be drawn from the police force of ranks ranging from constable to additional superintendent, said a source at the police headquarters.
The source was not sure whether the new squad would participate in probing the grenade attack on AL or not.
JUDICIAL COMMISSION
The one-member judicial commission, with its office set up yesterday near the judges' quarters at Kakrail, will begin its probe today byvisiting the spot.
The commissioner, Justice Joynul Abedin, will later meet injured victims and record their statements.
"We've asked for certified lists of the dead and injured for this. We'll also talk with witnesses, AL leaders and journalists who were injured in the attack," Senior Assistant Secretary Mohammad Alamgir of home ministry, who is providing assistance to the commission, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The commission will study the case filed by police and AL leaders by examining reports of explosive experts and autopsy, and will seek foreign experts' report if necessary.
It will check the security measures at the AL rally to find whether there was any security lapses and talk with policemen who were posted there.
"We'll also try to find out how the grenades went there. But our main target will be to make a suggestion on how to stop recurrence of such heinous incidents," Alamgir said.
The government formed the judicial commission on August 22. But the AL rejected it, asking for an international inquiry to ensure fair and neutral findings. SCBA BODY MEET INJURED TODAY The six-member SCBA inquiry committee went to Police Lines Hospital in Rajarbagh last night to record the statements of eight policemen injured in the incident.
"We'll go to other hospitals if we've time today," Dr Kamal Hossain, chair of the independent probe committee, told The Daily Star prior to the visit.
Reiterating his public appeal for assistance, Dr Kamal said, "We need witnesses and evidence and request all, if they have any, to contact us in the Supreme Court."
"We'll soon send letters asking people, especially journalists and photojournalists, for their accounts and photographs on the incident."
The SCBA committee began their work Friday last and recorded statements of AL President Sheikh Hasina, her car driver Abdul Matin, personal security officers retired major Shoeb and retired major Mamun, AL leader Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, and Jubo League Chairman Jahangir Kabir Nanak and General Secretary MirzaAzam MP.