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| Bangladesh |
| Grenade suppliers gone missing |
| 2009-08-04 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday ordered further investigation into the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally, stating that the investigation conducted earlier could not identify the collectors and suppliers of grenades used in the attack. The court ordered the inspector general of police to conduct the investigation and submit the report to the court within two months. The order came after a state lawyer, seeking further investigation into the two cases filed in connection with the attack on the rally on Bangabandhu Avenue, submitted two petitions before the court. Awami League President Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack but 23 of her party leaders and workers were killed and over 300 were maimed. The lawyer in the petitions, submitted on June 25, said influential people who had supplied the grenades are still untraced. After hearing the petitions on three days, Judge Masdar Hossain of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 passed the orders. During the rule of four-party government, the investigation officers misdirected the probe by detaining one Juj Miah and forcing him to give false confessional statement, the judge said. It was not possible for them, who were earlier arrested in this connection and had given confessional statements, to have had carried out the attack since they could not give any details on the attack, he said. A total of 61 prosecution witnesses had earlier given their statements but they did not mention who were the planners and patrons. So the real culprits are still at large, the judge said. The judge further said that the prosecution only to find out the fact filed the petitions. So the order for further investigation was given to establish justice for both parties, the judge added. Defence lawyers for detained accused Pintu opposed the petitions saying the prosecution had filed those only to implicate several other BNP leaders and activists. After the order, a defence lawyer told reporters, "The unprecedented order was issued ignoring our arguments." Of the 22 accused in the cases, 14 are now behind bars, including Pintu, Hannan and his brother Mohibullah, Moulana Abu Sayeed, Moulana Abu Taher, Mufti Moinuddin Sheikh alias Abu Zandal. The eight absconding accused are Pintu's brothers Tajuddin and Moulana Liton, Anisul Mursalin and his brother Mahibul Muttakin, Iqbal, Moulana Abu Bakar alias Selim Howlader, Jahangir Alam Badar and Khalilur Rahman. The Criminal Investigation Department, which had misdirected the investigation during the reign of BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance government, finally pressed charges in June last year accusing 21 members of Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) including its top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and BNP leader and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu. In the charge sheet, the CID only mentioned Tajuddin, brother of Pintu, as the supplier of the grenades. The CID investigators could not find out who gave him the grenades and how. Meanwhile, Indian national Moulana Mansur Ali, an organiser of Kashmir-based militant outfit Asif Reza Commando Force, disclosed to investigators that one of its leaders from India had given the grenades to Tajuddin in person, said officials of Detective Branch of police. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Compare wid TOPIX > VARIOUS - MEXICAN CARTEL BRING/SMUGGLING GRENADES INTO THE US!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-08-04 20:46 |