A Dhaka court on Thursday issued warrants for arrests of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s eldest son Tarique Rahman and 11 others in a case filed under the Explosive Substances Act for the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004.
Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge Mohammad Zohurul Haque also asked the police to submit a report to it by July 26 about the execution of the warrants.
The court ordered arrests of Tarique, also senior vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury, BNP lawmaker Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad, former director general of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, retired major general ATM Amin, former DGFI official retired lieutenant colonel Saiful Islam Joarder, former deputy commissioners of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Khan Sayeed Hasan and Obaidur Rahman, who are now officers on special duty, Hanif transport owner Md Hanif, and four others allegedly having militant links – Abdur Rauf, also known as Omar Abu Humayra or Peer Saheb Baba, Hafez Moulana Yahiya, Babu, also known as Ratul Babu and Mufti Abdul Hai.
The court passed the order after taking cognisance
of the offences mentioned in the supplementary charge sheet in the case of the deadly grenade attack that killed 24 people, including Mahila Awami League president Ivy Rahman, and wounded scores, including Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, now the prime minister.
This is the second warrant issued for the arrest of Tarique.
Ealier on July 3, the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate’s court issued warrant for his arrest in the case filed on charge of killings in the grenade attack.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday asked for copies of the supplementary charge sheets in the two cases of the grenade attacks.
The court wanted to see the charge sheets to dispose of the government’s appeal against the High Court verdict that had granted bail to former navy official retired lieutenant commander Saiful Islam Duke, also Khaleda’s nephew, in the cases. Duke, now in custody, was among the 30 named in the supplementary charge sheets.
The eight-member Appellate Division bench chaired by chief justice Md Muzammel Hossain asked the attorney general Mahbubey Alam to place the charge sheet by July 21 in response to a prayer by Duke’s lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain, also Supreme Court Bar Association president.
On July 3, the Criminal Investigation Department pressed a supplementary charge sheet against 30 accused in addition to the 22 people against whom charges were pressed on June 11, 2008 by the CID in the two cases of grenade attack.
On Thursday, the jail authorities produced 28, out of the total 31 accused in both the supplementary and the original charge sheets, in the court.
Among the accused who are in custody, 17, including detained Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, former National Security Intelligence directors general retired major general Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and retired brigadier general Abdur Rahim, former navy official retired lieutenant commander Saiful Islam Duke, former inspectors general of police M Ashraful Huda, Shahudul Haque and Khodabaksh Chowdhury, and former CID special superintendent Md Ruhul Amin and former assistant superintendents Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur Rahman, and individuals having militant links – Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Md Abdul Majed Butt, a Pakistani also known as Md Yusuf Butt, Abdul Malek, also known as Golam Mohammad, Sabbir Ahmed, also known as Abdul Hannan Sabbir, Shawkat Osman, also known as Sheikh Farid, and Sheikh Abdus Salam – were made accused in the supplementary charge sheets.
The last among the 17 is Dhaka City Corporation ward commissioner Ariful Rahman, who appeared during the hearing as he had been granted bail in the cases.
Ruhul Amin and superintendents Abdur Rashid and Atiqur Rahman could not be taken to the trial court as they were sick, said the court police.
Fourteen out of the 22 accused in the original charge sheet – former BNP deputy state minister Abdus Salam Pintu, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami operations commander Mufti Hannan, his brother Mohibullah, also known as Mafizur Rahman or Ovi, Sharif Shahidul Islam, also known as Bipul, Maulana Abu Sayeed, also known as Dr Abu Zafar, Abul Kalam Azad, also known as Bulbul, Jahangir Alam, Maulana Abu Taher, Shahadatullah Jewel, Hossain Ahmed Tamim, Mufti Moinuddin Sheikh, also known as Abu Zandal or Masum Billah, Arif Hasan Sumon, Rafiqul Islam Sabuj and Mohammad Ujjal, also known as Ratan – are now in the custody while eight others – Pintu’s brothers Moulana Tajuddin and Maulana Liton, Anisul Mursalin and his brother Mahibul Muttakin, Iqbal, Maulana Abu Bakar alias Selim Howlader, Jahangir Alam Badar and Khalilur Rahman – are on the run.
After the assumption of office by the Awami League-led alliance on January 6, 2009, the cases took a new turn as the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal, after recording depositions of 61prosecution witnesses, on August 3, 2009 ordered further investigation of the cases.
The court passed the order after hearing a petition filed on June 25, 2009 by the prosecution seeking further investigations on the ground that the previous investigations had failed to identify the masterminds of the carnage and the source of the grenades used in the attacks and had not explained the status of the grenades seized at the spot.
-With New Age input
