Police have been able to track the whereabouts of eight fugitive suspects in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka.
A total of 52 people were charged in the two cases of the 2004 attack— one over the killings and the other under the Explosives Act. Names of three suspects were dropped as they had been executed in other trials.
Eighteen of the 49 accused have been tried in absentia over the attack to eliminate the-then opposition leader and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“We have already traced locations of eight of the fugitive accused with the help of Interpol and our missions abroad and are trying to find out the locations of 10 others,” Abdul Kahar Akand, Additional Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Criminal Investigation Department and also last Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, told BSS.
Citing sources at the CID and the Bangladesh police headquarters, the state news agency said Maulana Tajuddin and his brother Ratul Ahmed alias Ratul Babu are now in South Africa, ex-MP Mofazzol Hossain Kaikobad in Saudi Arabia, former Major General ATM Amin and Lt Col Saiful Islam Joarder are in Dubai, two brothers and also Harkatul Jihad leaders, Mohibul Muttakin and Anisul Morchchalin, in Tihar Jail of India.
BNP chief Khaleda’s former special assistant Harris Chowdhury is moving through Malaysia, London, Singapore, USA and India, says the BSS report.
BNP’s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, who the prosecution said masterminded the attack and implemented it through militant outfit HuJI,B, is in London.
Former senior police officers Khan Sayeed Hasan and Obaidur Rahman Khan, HuJI,B leaders Mohammad Khalil, Jahangir Alam Badar, Liton alias Maulana Liton, Md Iqbal, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman (Bhairab), and Mufti Abdul Hai and owner of Hanif Paribahan, Mohammad Hanif, are yet to be located.
Maulana Tajuddin was arrested by South African police following an Interpol red corner notice. He is out on bail now but faces trial for trespassing in South Africa.
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“The court declared them (18 accused) fugitive and 31 others are in jail while three accused have been hanged,” Chief Prosecutor Syed Rezaur Rahman told BSS.
Former BNP minister and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed was also charged for the attacks. His name was dropped following his execution for 1971 war crimes.
Militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami, Bangladesh (HuJI, B) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and his accomplice Shahidul Alam Bipul have been executed over the 2004 Sylhet attack on the then-UK envoy Anwar Chowdhury.
The heinous attack was carried out on an anti-terrorism rally of Awami League, visibly with an aim to kill all the front ranking party leaders including its president and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who narrowly survived to sustain permanent hearing impairment.
The other central leaders around her also miraculously escaped the attack as the assailants with grenades narrowly missed their targets.
The then Mohila Awami League President and late President Zillur Rahman’s wife, Ivy Rahman, was one of the 24 killed in the attack.
During the last caretaker government’s tenure, the first two charge sheets in the cases were placed before the court on Jun 9, 2008 accusing 22 people, including former deputy minister of BNP-Jamaat alliance government Abdus Salam Pintu and 21 HuJI, B leaders and operatives.
Later on Jul 2 in 2011, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted two separate supplementary charge sheets in the cases against 30 people after a fresh investigation. With the 30 accused, the number of the accused in the cases rose to 52.
