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Aug 21 grenade attack probe ’doctored’

Three CID men sued for misdirecting investigation, accused of destroying evidence

Staff Correspondent
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed a case against three of its former investigators in connection with intentionally misdirecting the probe into the August 21 grenade attack case.
They are also accused of destroying evidence and forcing people into making confessional statements. All three investigated the case during the BNP-led four-party alliance government's tenure.
CID's Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Fazlul Kabir, the present investigation officer of the grenade attack case, filed the case Sunday night with Pal tan Police Station against retired special superin tendent (SS) of CID and former supervisor of the case Ruhul Amin and two retired ASPs Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur Rahman, former investigation officers of the case.
In his complaint. Fazlul Kabir said the former CID
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officials had implicated a number of innocent people in the case, filed in connection with the grenade attack on an Awarni League rally on August 21,2004, to hide facts and to let the actual criminals get away.
He said they destroyed evidence and did not record the confessional statements of the culprits, including outlawed Islamist militant outfit Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) leader Mufti Hannan, who admitted his involvement.
The complainant said die officials forced petty criminal Joj Miah and two others to confess before a magistrate by torturing them, threatening them and buying them with money.
Talking toThe Daily Star over phone yesterday, accused former CID official Abdur Rashid refuted the allegations and said, "1 did not force or threaten anybody into confessing before the court.''
"There were several authorities to justify that the accused persons were involved in the attack before they made confessional statements," said Abdur Rashid, adding, "It is not true that we tried to misdirect the case as we did not submit the charge sheet."
ASP Fazlul Kabir told The Daily Star, nCasc-52 [filed Sunday night) was filed after investigation and following other legal procedures, including taking the opinion of the public prosecutor."
Talking to The Daily Star, Pal tan Police Station Officer-in-charge Mohammad Majibar Rahman said the case was forwarded to the court in compliance with standard procedures.
According to the case statement, the CID took charge of the grenade attack case investigation on August 23, 2004, two days after the attack The CID appointed ASP Abdur Rashid as the investigation officer and SS Ruhul Amin was made supervisor.
ASP Rashid arrested 20 people and forced Joj Miah, Abul Hasem Rana and Shafiqul Islam to confess before magistrates under Section-164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) on June 26, December 12 and December 17 of 2005, the casestatementread.
After Abdur Rashid retired, Munshi Atiqur Rahman was appointed investigation officer of the grenade attack case on December24,2005.
In the meantime, CID had arrested Huji leader Mufti Hannan in connection with the Ramna Batamul blast case. He is also accused in several other cases filed in connection with militancy.
During CID interrogation. Hannan confessed to his involvement in the grenade attack and disclosed names of 27 others who were directly and indirectly involved in the planning and execution of the attack on the Awarni League (AL) rally.
The names include former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu.
Through multiple investigations, the BNP-led alliance government tried to establish that the AL itself killed its own leaders and activists to tarnish the image of the BNP-led government
They also tried to prove that "foreign enemies" instigated the camage and some listed criminals absconding in India had executed the attack
A total of 24 people were killed and over 300 were maimed in the attack that was aimed to assassinate the then leader of the opposition and present Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Fifty months after the attack a Dhaka court on October 29, 2008, framed charges against 22 people, including former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu.
Rest of the accused are leaders and operatives of Huji.
Eleven days after the attack, the then prime minister Khaleda Zia blamed the AL for the attack
Days later, during a BNP parliamentary party meeting, Khaleda had said that no Islamist extremist groups existed in the country.
"We have to prove that we do not patronise extremists and that no such groups exist in the country," said Khaleda accusing
the then main opposition AL of conspiring to tarnish the country's image.
BNP MPs, in Khaleda's presence in parliament, blamed the AL of attacking its own rally and endangering the life of the ALchief.
Ihe BNP-led government's one member judicial probe committee led by Justice Joynul Abedin never published its 162-page report, despite claiming to have identified a "foreign enemy" behind the attack.
Ihe government had then asked for help from the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Interpol but their findings were also never made public.
CID officials say that Interpol's detailed report was attached to the charge sheet and submitted to the govern ment while the FBI never submitted a report even though they collected pieces of evidence for running tests.
Ihe BNP-led government's stance subsequently influenced the then investigators to weave a story involving Mokhlesur Rahman, a ward-level AL leader and former ward councillor of Moghbazar in the capital.
The investigators also tried to concoct another story through a dubious "confessional statement" made by Joj Miah, who named Mokhlesur as one of the planners of the grenadeattack
Joj Miah turned out to be a creation of the investigators when his sister revealed that the CID had been paying his family Tk 2,500 a month for upkeep since his arrest.
Joj and two others provided nearly identical and weakly woven statements, which were widely discredited by the media.
Apart from Mokhlesur and Joj, 18 others were arrested and were allegedly tortured. A Dhaka court later ordered their release saying the charges brought against them by the erstwhile investigators were baseless.
Last year, several serving and retired investigators involved at different stages of the probe, told The Daily Star that the masterminds of the attack remain undetected even though charges had been pressed in the two cases-one tor the Killings and one filed under Explosive Substances Act.