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Strategically speaking

August 21 grenade attack and the charge sheet

Brig Gen ShahedulAnam khan ndc, psc (Retd)
***Therefore, it is not merely enough to have framed the charge sheet only. It is also not enough to say that the policemen, who conducted the first enquiry and abetted in the distortion of the case, will be made to account for their action. It must be understood that they were acting at the bidding of some powerful bigwigs. We hope that the second round of the inquiry on which the charge sheet has been framed has been able to establish a prima-facie case against those that were pulling the strings in the background. We do not know. But the country cannot brook any laxity in this regard because there is a powerful nexus between these terrorists and their masters inside the country. And iff left un-tackled might resurface with attacks against other targets that they find to be against what they feel is their interest.***
CHARGE sheet in the case of grenade attack on the Awami League leadership has been framed -- following a reinvestigation that was ordered after the assumption of office by the current caretaker government. Although it is not unusual to have series of investigations in one particular case to con-firm/reconfirm certain allegations, what causes the matter to stand out in this case is that none of the 20 accused taken in custody during the first investigation finds mention in the charge sheet. They have been set scot-free and replaced by a totally new list of accused.
However, the police authorities could very well have avoided restating a very obvious truism --that of the object of the attack. Everyone but the most hopeless moron and an inept ignoramus would have failed to see as to who the perpetrators were after. We would much rather have liked to hear the internal and external links of the perpetrators, and the realmastermind.
While the police deserve our thanks for having framed, for want
of a better word, a "genuine" charge-sheet, the entire episode - -that of handling of the matter since the day of the occurrence --suggests that there is much more to the affair than meets our eyes — that there are quite a few questions that must be asked and answers demanded of the authorities. There is an element of the sinister and the ugly in the way the case was handled by the 4-party Alliance regime.
To start with, one would like to ask about the status of the findings of the one-man inquiry committee of Justice Abedin in view of the reinvestigation. Because the then alliance government had chosen to keep the commission's findings out of public knowledge, it was the unofficial sources that one had to depend on regarding its findings. In view of the fact that the major thrust of the Joynal Commission's conclusions, that of the involvement of a third country, has been negated by the fact that the reinvestigation says nothing about the
hands of any "enemy" country, one wonders whether the commission was set up with a particular purpose - that of diverting the course of the investigation.
There is perhaps little doubt that the one-man commission had an agenda also. And its findings were predetermined, as can be assessed from whatever little that has been gleaned from information gained through the public grapevine on the commission's findings. It would, therefore, not be unfair to demand of the government to make public the conclusions of the Commission for the sake of justice, and that cannot be done without determining who all were calling the shots before and after the incident, and the extent of the involvement of state functionaries, if any.
There must also be much more than the IG's assurance that those in the department responsible for diverting the course of investigation will be taken to task. It is hard to believe that the policemen
responsible for laying red herrings to spoil the merit of the case would have dared to do what they did, were it not for the fact that there were powerful people backing them up -- people who had a stake in the outcome of the grenade attack. The investigating policemen certainly were accessories to a grievous crime, which, had the plot succeeded, would have had serious repercussions on the nation -- its stability and its security. What is yet to be exposed is the identity of the mastermind behind the plot
Pintu's alleged involvement in the incident gives a new twist to the case, and also validates what many had argued about the possibility of an internally sponsored act by some linked with the erstwhile 4-party Alliance government -- though the main sponsors remain unidentified as of now. One hopes that further investigation would reveal all these and more - - if not done already.
However, what is more impor-
tant, and which the government must take into consideration, is that the previous investigation and its conclusions were evidently a sham. What was conducted in the name of investigation was obviously designed to divert the focus and put the blame on helpless individuals -- and that is why the concocted involvement of “Joj Mia." He is supposed to have given a confessional statement, admitting to carrying out the attack, although the government at the time was quick to discount any suggestion that the attack was directed against the AL leader. As it turns out, the so-called confessional statements were obtained under duress.
It is an unheard of practice that the family of the prime accused involved in conducting a terrorist attack aimed to take out the leadership of a major political party, that eventually took more than 20 lives, and crippled, some permanently, more than 200 people, had been provided with government stipend for a long time.
Therefore, it is not merely enough to have framed the charge sheet only. It is also not enough to say that the policemen, who conducted the first enquiry and abetted in the distortion of the case, will be made to account for their action. It must be understood that they were acting at the bidding of some powerful bigwigs. We hope that the second round of the inquiry on which the charge sheet has been framed has been able to establish a prima-facie case against those that were pulling the strings in the background. We do
not know. But the country cannot brook any laxity in this regard because there is a powerful nexus between these terrorists and their masters inside the country, And if left un-tackled might resurface with attacks against other targets that they find to be against what they feel is their interest.
One regrets to point out that there has been a systemic failure in the police department also in so far as this case is concerned. It is a fact that the investigation was warped deliberately to hide the actual culprits, and all the 20 or so so-called accused were framed, which could not be recognised by those that were supposed to have scrutinised the reports before allowing the case to be proceeded with, unless of course they were also a party to the sham inquiry.
It can be said that had there been no change of government, this case, as with the other cases of terrorist attacks and bombings in Bangladesh, would have remained unresolved -- in fact for all one can say, some innocent people would have been hanged - -and that would been a grave travesty of justice.
One feels that the government's work is cut out in this case. It must direct all intelligence efforts to unearth the masterminds behind the attack, who must be put in the dock It must be done for the sake of justice. The sooner that happens the quicker will we be able to deal with the other similar cases . successfully.
The author is Editor De'ence i Strategic Affairs, The Daily Star