16th Anniversary of August 21 Grenade Attack

The nation is set to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the deadly August 21 grenade attacks on Friday, to relive the traumatic memories of the event, while the victims and their families are still looking for justice.

At least 24 people were killed and about 300 wounded in the grisly assault on the Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue, the capital, on 21 August 2004.

Incumbent Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, then leader of the opposition in parliament, barely survived the attack with an ear injury.

Overcoming all legal obstacles, in a historic decision, 19 people were sentenced to death by the Dhaka court on 10 October 2018, including former Minister of State Lutfozzaman Babar and former Deputy Minister Abdus Salam Pintu in two cases brought against the attack.

The court also sentenced 19 persons to life imprisonment, including BNP acting president Tarique Rahman, BNP chairman and former prime minister Khaled Zia political secretary Harris Chowdhury and former BNP legislator Qazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad, while 11 others were given jail sentences of differing terms.

HC yet to start hearing of death sentence, appeals

Almost two years have passed since the delivery of verdicts but the High Court is yet to start hearing the death references and appeals filed by the convicts in the two cases.

Court sources said that the hearing on death references and appeals had been delayed because the paper was not ready to start the hearing in the case. However, the paper had arrived at the High Court from the Bangladesh Government Press on Sunday, clearing the way for HC to begin hearing death references and appeals in these cases.

The Chief Justice will now submit death reports and petitions to the High Court for consideration and disposal.

Paper-book records all the details of the case, the proceedings, the verdicts and other documents, including the statements and evidence. A paper-book is necessary in order for the High Court to hear and dispose of a death reference or appeal.

While talking to media, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the government will take necessary steps for an early hearing and disposing of the death references and appeals in these cases.

"efforts were made to postpone the court process and to shield the actual accused suspects in the cases. They also assume that the review of lawsuits will take place on a priority basis. We would therefore push the court to schedule such trials on a priority basis, "he said.

“No other country in the world has carried out such a massacre to wipe out a political party,” said the chief state lawyer.

In October 2018, Judge Shahed Nuruddin of the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 handed down the verdict.

After the death reference reached the HC, the convicts, now in jail, filed separate appeals with the HC challenging the verdict of the court.

On January 13 last year, the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman accepted the appeals for hearing.

During delivery of the verdict, the court stated that rivalry between the ruling and the opposition parties is inevitable in politics, but it is utterly unacceptable that attempts will be made to make the opposition leaderless.

"General people don't want such politics," said the judge.

"In politics, there will inevitably be a myriad of disputes between the ruling party and the opposition, but trying to eliminate opposition leaders is not acceptable," he said.

The Court noted that, in a democratic nation, the ruling party must make every effort to consolidate democracy by adopting a liberal policy towards the opposition.

"The attempt by the ruling party to gain political advantage by killing opposition leaders is not indicative of democratic thinking," the judge said.

"This is not what the public wants. We try to learn the politics, philosophy, and strategies of a group by joining in their demonstration and processions. The public will turn away from politics if throwing grenades to kill political leaders and common people become a trend.”

The court claimed, with the hidden phrase, "Sheikh Hasina will eat a light breakfast," that some home-grown insurgents conducted the assault with the assistance of foreign insurgent groups.

This also reported that the grenade attack was meant to destroy the political leaders of the Awami League, and that local rebels were personally involved in the action.

With the help of foreign insurgents and state forces, the attackers aimed the Arges grenades — usually used in war — in broad daylight, at a democratic rally in the center of the country 's capital.

The judge put forward some questions – “Why was such a lethal weapon used?”

"Does politics mean an abominable attack on the opposition party? Not just an assault, it was an effort to make the party leaderless.

Before the verdict was issued, the court reported the testimonies of 225 of 511 prosecution witnesses and 20 defense witnesses in the proceedings.

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on June 11, 2008, submitted a charge-sheet against 22 people, including chief of Bangladesh chapter of militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad-al-Islami (huji) Mufti Abdul Hannan.

But Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 on August 3, 2009, ordered further investigation, accepting a plea of the prosecution.

Later on in 2011, CID submitted two separate supplementary charge sheets in the cases against 30 people after a fresh investigation into the matter. With the 30, the number of charge-sheeted accused in the cases rose to 52.

Until October 2006, during the BNP-Jamaat regime, the investigators tried to divert the probe in the wrong direction in order to save the real culprits. Media stories on the cooked-up case of Joj Mia were rendered public during an effort by the then CID officials to disrupt the probe.

According to the deposition, the perpetrators carried out a grenade attack when the BNP was in power and the government of that time made every effort to protect the masterminds behind the heinous attack that was allegedly plotted to assassinate Sheik Hasina.

A further investigation in the cases revealed that the attack was the result of collaboration between militants, influential BNP-Jamaat leaders, and a number of senior home ministry officials, police, DGFI, NSI, and Hawa Bhaban.

The members of Huji visited BNP leader Tarique Rahman a few days before the grenade assault and took the lead in carrying out the explosions. The then BNP-led government did not pay heed to demands from the international community to pursue a reasonable investigation of the accident, according to the bills of charges.