With a fresh vow to bring back the fugitive accused of August 21 grenade attack case to home from abroad, the 16th anniversary of the gruesome grenade attack was observed across the country with befitting manner.
And after bringing them home from abroad the verdict will be executed, AL senior leaders at a virtual discussion came up with this statement on Friday.
The ruling party organised the virtual discussion at its central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in the city marking the 16th anniversary of the gruesome grenade attack on an AL anti-terrorism rally in the capital on August 21, 2004.
Marking the anniversary, leaders and activists of the ruling party and other political and socio-cultural organisations paid rich tributes by placing wreaths at the altar in front of the party’s central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in the morning.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina joined the discussion through a videoconference from her official Ganabhaban residence while presiding over the virtual discussion.
At the outset of the meeting, a minute’s silence was observed as a sign of profound respect to the memory of the martyrs of the August 21 grenade attack and the martyrs of the August 15 carnage.
While talking in the discussion, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader said like the killers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, all absconding killers of August 21 grisly carnage will be brought back to the country.
“Especially Bangladesh Nationalist Party Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, also son of BNP Chief Khaleda Zia and others those who were engaged in the gruesome murders will be brought back. And after all proceeding of trial the court verdict will be executed during the current tenure of Sheikh Hasina’s government immediately,” he said while delivering the introductory speech at the discussion.
Tarique, now in London, and 17 others including several intelligence officials were earlier declared “absconding” as they were on the run to evade justice.
Recalling the martyrs of August 21, Obaidul Quader also said the country’s soil got blood strained of lakhs of people during the Liberation War in 1971.
“Later Bangabandhu and most of his family members were brutally killed on August 15 in 1975. And on August 21 in 2004, the world became astonished as it didn’t witness such incident in the history of mankind, where state sponsored attack was launched to kill the leader of the opposition in parliament and the daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” AL General Secretary said.
Most of the senior leaders of the party saved the life of Sheikh Hasina by forming an instant human shield, he added.
He said with the grace of the Almighty, Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the carnage.
He again blamed the BNP-Jamaat alliance for perpetrating the barbaric grenade attack on an Awami League rally in 2004, saying that killings are the habit of BNP.
“During the BNP-Jamaat regime, the investigators were trying to divert the probe to a wrong direction to save the real culprits. The BNP-Jamaat did everything to impede the trial of the gruesome murder and also cooked-up story of Joj Mia,” Obaidul Quader said.
But, 24 people including the then Women Affairs Secretary of Awami League and also wife of late President Zillur Rahman were killed and over 500 others injured in the attack.
Those others killed in the barbaric grenade attack included the then opposition leader’s personal security guard Lance Corporal (retd) Mahbubur Rashid, Abul Kalam Azad, Rezina Begum, Nasir Uddin Sardar, Atique Sarkar, Abdul Kuddus Patwari, Aminul Islam Moazzem, Belal Hossain, Mamun Mridha, Ratan Shikdar, Liton Munshi, Hasina Mamtaz Reena, Sufia Begum, Rafiqul Islam (Ada Chacha), Mostaque Ahmed Sentu, Md Hanif, Abul Kashem, Zahed Ali, Momen Ali, M Shamsuddin and IshaqueMiah.
Prominent among those suffered serious splinter injuries included Sheikh Hasina, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta, Obaidul Quader, Advocate Sahara Khatun, Mohammad Hanif, Prof Abu Sayeed, and AFM Bahauddin Nasim.
The nation’s long wait seeking justice of the brutal grenade attack that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 500 finally ended as a special court pronounced the verdict of a case filed over the attack on October 10, 2018.
The court awarded death sentence to 19 people including former Home Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar and life imprisonment to 19 including ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s fugitive son Tarique Rahman in connection with the grenade attack.
With the verdict pronounced by Dhaka’s 1st Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Shahed Nur Uddin, the nation was freed from stigma of committing most shocking crime in the political history.
Later, the lower court on November 27, 2018, sent a 37,385-page case document including the judgment to the High Court for further proceedings.
Fifty two people were held accused in the case while prosecution suggested an influential quarter of the then BNP regime including party’s senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman masterminded its shocking plot engaging militant outfit HuJI and subsequently made desperate efforts to protect the assailants.
Three of the accused top HuJI leader Mufty Abdul Hannan, Sharif Shahedul Bipul and then Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, however, were by now executed after trial in other cases.
A total of 31 accused including two former ministers faced the trial in person while 18 including Tarique Rahman were tried in absentia as they are believed to be staying abroad.
The death penalty convicts were: Lutfuzzaman Babar, Salam Pintu, Mawlana Tajuddin, intelligence officials Major General (retd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and Brigadier General Abdur Rahim, transport operator Md Hanif, militants Mowlana Sheikh Abdus Salam, Abdul Mazed Bhat, Abdul Malek, Shawkat Osman, Mohibullah, Abu Sayeed, Abul Kalam Azad, Jahangir Alam, Hafez Abu Taher, Hossain Ahammed Tamim, Moin Uddin Sheikh, Rafikul Islam and Md Uzzal.
Other than Rahman, the political figures who were handed down life imprisonments were: ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s the then political adviser Haris Chowdhury and former BNP lawmaker Qazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad.
The others to serve the life term prison were militants Shahadat Ullah alias Jewel, Abdur Rouf, Sabbir Ahmed, Arif Hasan, Hafez Yahia, Abu Bokor, Ariful Islam, Mohibul Muttakin, Anisul Mursalin, Mohammad Khalil, Jahangir Alam Badar, Mohammad Iqbal, Liton, Shafikur Rahman, Abdul Hai and Ratul Ahmed Babu.
