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| Bangladesh |
| Court raps cops for failure to arrest Huji men |
| 2008-07-25 |
| A Dhaka court yesterday expressed dissatisfaction over negligence in duties by police personnel in executing arrest warrants against seven absconding Harkatul Jihad (Huji) members accused in the August 21 grenade attack case. Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque asked the Public Prosecutor (PP) to take actions against the policemen who failed to comply with the court order. The court said it had issued arrest warrants against the absconding accused on June 23 and directed the authorities concerned to send copies of the arrest warrants to their addresses the same day. But the officers-in-charge (OC) of different police stations, who had been asked to return reports on arrest warrants to the court by yesterday, did not comply with the court order. The court also said the police submitted the charge sheet of the case after four years of the grenade attacks and have been trying to delay trial. Only Barisal Kotwali police submitted a report on the arrest warrant against Abu Bakar alias Hafez Selim mentioning that they could not arrest him. Meantime, the same court rejected the bail petitions of detained former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu and three Huji members, Arif Hasan Sumon, Jahangir Alam and Shahadat Ullah Jewel. Huji Chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and Sumon submitted petitions for retraction of their confessional statements saying that they were forced to give the statements. The court fixed August 10 for next hearing of the case and directed the OC of different police stations to submit reports on arrest warrants against the seven absconding accused on the scheduled date. The prosecution told the judge that they would try to make sure that police submit the reports in due time. Moving the bail petitions, the lawyers told the court that their clients were implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to harass them. The prosecution said the petitions should be rejected as they had earlier confessed to their involvement in the incident. The case was filed for carrying out grenade attacks on an Awami League (AL) rally on August 21, 2004 that left 23 people dead and around 200 injured. Detained former lawmaker Pintu and other accused, who are in jail custody now, were produced before the court. The seven absconding accused are Pintu's brothers Maulana Tajuddin and Maulana Liton, Anisul Mursalin and his brother Mahibul Muttakin, Iqbal, Jahangir Alam Badar and Khalilur Rahman. |
| Posted by:Fred |