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Aug 21 probe still in question

Govt seeks further investigation; court hears plea July 1

Staff Correspondent
The government wants further investigation into the August 21 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally as it believes even the probe by the last caretaker government, which corrected the farcical investigation of the BNP-Jamaat alliance s rule, is not a complete one.
The state lawyer yesterday submitted a prayer to a Dhaka court for further investigating the attack that aimed to assassinate AL President Sheikh Hasina in 2004, saying expert
and influential people who had supplied the grenades have still remained untraced.
The grisly attack on Hasina's rally on Bangabandhu Avenue killed 23 AL leaders and workers and maimed over 300.
.After a brief hearing on the petition, Judge Masdar Hossain of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 fixed July 1 for full hearing.
The Criminal Investigation Department, which investigated the two cases filed in connection with the sensational incident, submitted charge sheets in June last year, accusing 21 members of Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) including its top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and former deputy minister of BNP-led government Abdus Salam Pintu.
In its earlier probe, how-
ever, the CID had not found any proof that the banned Islamist outfit Huji or anyone from BNP were involved in the attack.
The first group of CID investigators rather
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confidently pointed fingers to a student named Shaibal Saha Partha and later claimed involvement also of some criminal groups and a field level leader of the Al itself.
Hwy also obtained confessional statements from loj Miah, Abul Hashem alias Rana and Shafiqul Islam.
latest investigations, how ever found the accusations were wrong and the confessions were obtained using force.
Some of these prominent CID investigators are now facing charges for their offences
Yesterday the prosecution lawyer. Chief Public Prosecutor Syed Rezaur Rahman, in his • prayer to the judge said verifying documents and statements of witnesses it is clear that the attack was carried out in a planned way to kill people gathered at die rally on August 21.2004
He argued that the grenades used in the attacks were not simple explosives and not easy to obtain without involvement of explosives experts
He said elaborate investigation has not been held to find out those involved in collecting and supplying the special types of explosives. So. further investigation is required to bring those explosives experts and influential people to trial
Through several investigations the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government tried to establish that the Al. killed its own leaders and activists to tarnish the image of the government They also tried to prove that a 'foreign enemy" instigated the camage and that some cnminals absconding in India staged the attacks.
Eleven day’s after the grisly incident, the then premier and BNP chief Khaleda Zia pinned the blame on AL leaders.
Interestingly, weeks later she told a meeting of the BNP Parliamentary Party that no
Islamist extremist groups existed in the country
The one-member judicial probe committee of Justice loynul Abedin, formed by the then government within a lew-days of the grenade attack, claimed in its 162-page report to have identified perpetrators of the massacre--a "foreign enemy”. Investigators have, however, tailed to substantiate it. Hie report was never made public.
An investigation was conducted under the direct supervision of the then state minister for home. Lutfozzaman Babar, and 22 persons including Partlia, the Al leader and ward commissioner Mokhlesur Rahman were arrested. They had to undergo a lot of harassment and tortures.
The probe drama was given a twist with the government's claim about "confessions" of loj Miah. Abul Hashem and Shafiqul Islam that a criminal gang car ried out the attack.
Hie latest investigation has found that those confessional statements were obtained, as per the BNP government's desire, using force The previous CID investigators and the supervising officer were found to have paid Joj Miah's family on a monthly basis.
CID's Assistant Superintendent of Police Fazlul Kabir, the present investigation officer of the grenade attack cases, filed a case on March 29 this year with Pal tan Police Station against three of its former investigators for intentionally misdirecting the probe into die two cases.
Retired special superintendent ofCID and former supervisor of the case Ruhul Amin and two retired assistant superintendents of police--Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur Rahman, the previous investigation officers--were also accused of destroying evidence and forcing people into making confessional statements.