A victim of the 2004 heinous grenade attack on a rally has filed a case accusing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Jamaat-i-Islami Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami and 26 others of instigating terrorists to carry out the carnage that left 24 killed and 200 wounded.
Engineer Badar Azizuddin, who was injured during the attack, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Court that asked the Paltan police station to inquire into the case and submit a report.
Opposition Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, who had addressed the rally from a truck, narrowly escaped, but her security guard and a top leader of the Mahila (Woman) Awami League Ivy Rahman were killed.
The other accused include Tarique Rahman, Khaleda Zia’s elder son, Jamaat-i-Islami secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mujahid and central leader Abdul Kader Mollah; former ministers Luthfuzzaman Babar, Amanullah Aman, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, Mirza Abbas, Brig Gen (retired) Hannan Shah, Barkatullah Bulu; former lawmakers Mosaddek Ali Falu, Salahuddin Ahmed, Nasiruddin Pintu, Helaluzzaman Talukdar Lalu; Krishak (Peasant) Dal general-secretary Shahjahan Mian, Islami Bank managing director Nurul Islam, businessman Giasuddin Al-Mamun, former National Security Intelligence (NSI) chief Maj Gen. (retired) Razzakul Haider and former police chief Modabbir Hossain Chowdhury.
Of them, Tarique, Shah, Aman, Salahuddin Quader, Mirza Abbas, Falu, Salahuddin, Pintu, Lalu and Mamun are already in jail facing corruption cases.
Engineer Badar Azizuddin stated in his petition that the blasts were carried out on instructions from Khaleda, Tarique, Nizami, Babar (former minister of state for home affairs) and others.
He gave an eyewitness account of the carnage and alleged that it was designed to kill Sheikh Hasina and other top Awami League leaders.
He claimed that the law-enforcers deployed there had all along been aware of the plot and played a mere onlooker’s role.
Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and Matiur Rahman Nizami’s Jamaat-i-Islami have described the case as “politically motivated” and “conspiratorial”.
Police have virtually failed to make any headway in the investigation into the grenade attack on August 21, 2004.