[Bangla Daily Star] Criminal Investigation Department is quizzing Khaleda Zia's nephew Saiful Islam Duke about his alleged role in arranging escape for perpetrators of the August 21 grenade blasts in 2004.Duke, who was personal secretary to the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, is being interrogated also about his "involvement in the bid to misdirect the investigation" into the grenade attack, a CID official told The Daily Star yesterday.
Interrogators are questioning him along that line following information gleaned from some former intelligence officials who had earlier been quizzed in the grenade attack case.
"We have information that he helped Moulana Tajuddin and some of the grenade-throwers to flee the country. He also coordinated the efforts to have a false probe to save the real culprits," said the official who would not be identified talking about the matter.
Duke, however, denies the allegations, he added.
Earlier on Thursday, CID arrested him on charges of helping Tajuddin, an operative of Pakistan-based militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Tajuddin is alleged to have supplied the grenades used in the August 21 attack, which killed 24 Awami League leaders and workers at a rally on Bangabandhu Avenue.
His brother Abdus Salam Pintu, BNP leader and former deputy minister, is now detained in the August 21 case.