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Grenade suppliers gone missing

Court orders more probe into Aug 21 attack, report in 2 months

Court Correspondent
A Dhaka court yesterday ordered further investigation into the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami l eague rally, stating that the investigation conducted earlier could not identify the collectors and suppliers of grenades used in the attack. The court ordered the inspector general of police to conduct the investigation and submit the report to the court within two months.
The order came after a state lawyer, seeking further investigation into the two cases filed in connection with the attack on the rally on
Bangabandhu Avenue, submitted two petitions before the court.
Awami League President Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack but 23 of her party leaders and workers were killed and
over 300 were maimed.
The lawyer in die petitions, submitted on June 25, said influential people who had supplied the grenades are still untraced.
After hearing the petitions on three days, Judge Masdar Hossain of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 passed the orders.
During the rule of four-party government, the investigation officers diverted the probe by detaining o ne Ju j M i ah and forcing him to give false confessional statement, the judge said.
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It was not possible for them, who were earlier arrested in this connection and had given confessional statements, to have had carried out (he attack since (hey could not give any details on (he attack, he said.
A total of 61 prosecution witnesses had earlier given their statements but they did not mention who were the planners and patrons. So (he real culprits are still at large, the judge said.
The judge further said that the prosecution only (o find out the fact filed the petitions. So the order for further investigation was given to establish justice for both parties, the judgeadded.
Defence lawyers for detained accused Pintu opposed (he petitions saying the prosecution had filed those only to implicate several other BNP leaders and activists.
After the order, a defence lawyer told reporters, "Ihe unprecedented order was issued ignoring our arguments."
Of the 22 accused in the cases, 14 are now behind bars, including Pintu, Hannan and his brother Mohibullah, Moulana Abu Sayeed, Moulana .Abu Taher, Mufti Moinuddin Sheikh alias Abu Zandal.
The eight absconding accused are Pintu's brothers Tajuddin and Moulana Liton, Anisul Mursalin and his brother Mahibul Muttakin, Iqbal, Moulana Abu Bakar alias Selim Howlader, Jahangir Alam BadarandKhalilur Rahman.
The Criminal Investigation Department, which had unduly diverted the investigation during the reign of BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance government, finally pressed charges in June last year accus-
ing 21 members of Harkatul Jihad Al Mami (Huji) including its top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and BNP leader and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu.
In the charge sheet, the (JI) only mentioned Tajuddin, brother of Pintu, as the sup plier of the grenades. lite CID investigators could not find out who gave him the grenades and how.
Meanwhile, Indian national Moulana Mansur All, an organiser of Kashmir-based militant outfit Asif Reza Commando force, disclosed to investigators that one of its leaders from India had given the grenades to Tajuddin in person, said officials of Detective Branch of police.