The investigation process in the sensational case of the assassination attempt on Awami League (AL) Chief Sheikh Hasina on August 21, 2004 has stopped halfway being severely influenced by a powerful quarter of the government. To save a political quarter and its 'God father", the Government allegedly is not showing any interest to continuing the inquiry into the incident anymore, said a confident source. At least 21 Awami League (AL) leaders and workers including Women Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman were killed and over 200 received injuries in a chain of grenade blasts and gun attack on a rally in front of the AL Central Office on August 21, 2004. AL Chief Sheikh Hasina was addressing the rally standing on a mini truck narrowly escaped the deadly attack. Several journalists and police personnel were also injured in the incident. Eight grenades exploded on the AL rally were all ARGES-74/84 model anti-personnel grenades usually produced in several countries such as China, Austria and Pakistan. Suspicion as been created among the concerned circle, when it was learnt that same type of grenades are also produced in the Ordnance Factory in Bangladesh.
Sources said, several heads of states and governments around the world specially the USA, UK, Canada and India expressed their deep dissatisfaction when the government failed to detect the mastermind even after five months of the incident. They also urged the Khaleda Zia's government to nab the real culprits as it would encourage the fundamentalist and extremists groups active in this part of the globe. An intelligence official requesting anonymity told The Bangladesh Observer that backed by a globally known Islamist outfit, a couple of Bangladeshi nationals staying abroad might have designed the well-planned assassination mission from a foreign country with the help of local operatives. Terming the 'August 21-2004' incident as a 'test case', the Intelligence official also said that a hardcore fundamentalist group getting patronisation from an international Islamist extremist outfit has been trying to create anarchy by launching grenade attacks on the prominent figures".
Echoing the Government's intention, a senior official of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told The Bangladesh Observer on Sunday that the case is still "under-investigation". They could not make any headway to detect the mastermind behind the grenade attack on Hasina and her associates, he added. According to reliable sources, the local and foreign investigators including the CID, INTERPOL and FBI have got sufficient clues about the 'racket' along with the 'God father' involved in the assassination attempt. The main investigating authority CID being advised by a quarter of the government has already sent the sensational case to 'deep fridge'. And for that reason CID has taken a time-passing technique by suppressing the facts.