BSS-30 Final reinvestigation on Aug 21 Attack unmasked all culprits: Official

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BSS-30

INVESTIGATION-ATTACK-EPISODES

Final reinvestigation on Aug 21 Attack unmasked all culprits: Official

DHAKA, Oct 8, 2018 (BSS) – As the country awaits the judgment on the August
21 Grenade Attack Case, officials familiar with the related process said the
final reinvestigation into the gruesome assault eventually unmasked the
masterminds of the onslaught, when 24 people were killed and nearly 500
wounded.

They said the case visibly witnessed mainly three episodes of
investigations while the first one was clearly led to create a smokescreen to
protect the perpetrators during the BNP regime, prompting the subsequent
caretaker government to launch a reinvestigation, which, however, appeared
imperfect for failing to unmask some major masterminds.

“The final reinvestigation was crucial in digging up the truth,”
investigation officer of the case and Criminal Investigation Department’s
(CID) additional deputy inspector general Abdul Kahar Akand told BSS.

He added: “We unmasked the attack masterminds, unearthed the supply
channel of the grenades and the deliberately made flaws of particularly the
first investigation to mislead the trial and negligence on the part of
officials concerned.”

Akand said that the leftover grenades found at the attack scene at
Bangabandhu Avenue were destroyed deliberately to hide evidence and divert
the investigation course led by three the then CID police officers –
assistant police superintendents (ASPs) Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atikur Rahman
and police superintendent Ruhul Amin.

The subsequent investigation carried out by CID ASP Fazlul Kabir also could
not unmask the alleged masterminds including incumbent acting BNP chairman
Tarique Rahman, the then junior home minister Lutfuzzaman Babar, the then
premier’s political adviser Haris Chowdshury, former BNP lawmaker Mofazzal
Hossain Kaikobad and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad
Mujaheed.

In the first phase of investigation, the previous IOs clearly tended to
protect the attack masterminds and executors, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami
(HuJI) operatives, visibly knowing it well that this banned outfit previously
made repeated attempts to kill the then opposition leader and incumbent Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The first charge sheet of the case came during the interim government when
IO Fazlul Kabir said that the attack was carried out under Huji chief Mufti
Abdul Hannan’s leadership while ‘some influential people’ were involved in
it, without naming those influential people.

Akand said their investigation also revealed that the source of the ARGES
grenades used in the attack came from Pakistan while the assailants received
the military hardware through former deputy minister of BNP regime Abdus
Salam Pintu and his brother HuJI leader Maulana Tajuddin.

“Our investigation clearly came to the conclusion that the attack was
planned and carried out to eliminate Awami League, killing its top leaders
including Sheikh Hasina, who earlier appeared as assailants repeated target
as well,” Akand said.

The casualties included the then Awami League’s Women Affairs Secretary
and late President Zillur Rahman’s wife Ivy Rahman were killed in the attack
on an anti-terrorism rally at Bangabandhu Avenue.

A Motijheel Police Station sub-inspector, Sharif Faruk Ahmed, filed the
case over the attack while former CID ASP Abdur Rashid was assigned as CID’s
first investigation officer, who tried to depict one Shoibal Saha Partho as
the assailant, drawing sharp protests from Awami League, other parties and
rights groups who smelled rat in the intension of the authority.

Authorities then replaced Rashid with Munshi Atik who then found one Jaj
Mia as the assault culprit, an episode which later was dubbed by media as
“Jaj Mia Drama”.

After final investigations Akand, submitted the supplementary charge sheet
on July 2, 2011 naming 30 more suspects to be indicted in the case while they
included several officers of DGFI and NSI, and three former investigation
officers of the case.

The number of suspects being tried in the case is 52 but 18 of them are on
the run abroad carrying Interpol’s Red Notice, 31 others are in jails and the
rest three were convicted and executed in two other cases.

BSS/spl-AHJ-MM/AR/1957 hrs