Aug 21 grenade attack verdict today

Gb news24 desk//

Dhaka 1st Speedy Trial Tribunal is set to pronounce its much-awaited judgment today in two cases filed over the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital in 2004.

On September 18, a speedy trial tribunal here in the capital fixed October 10 to deliver its verdict in the cases.

Judge Shahed Nuruddin of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 has fixed the date after conducting hearing the concluding arguments while the hearing of the two cases have taken place simultaneously at Dhaka 1st Speedy.

The prosecution started placing arguments before the tribunal in connection with the two cases on October 23.

The grenade attack was carried out on an anti-terrorism rally arranged by Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital during the BNP-Jamaat alliance’s rule, aiming to kill then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina on August 21, 2004.

In the grisly attack, at least 24 leaders and activists, including AL’s women affairs secretary and late President Zillur Rahman’s wife Ivy Rahman, were killed and over 300 others received injuries.

Two cases — one under the Explosive Substances Act and another for murder — were filed in connection with the grenade attack later. On June 11, 2008, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted a charge-sheet against 22 people in the case.

According to the case statement, fifty-two people were held accused in the case while prosecution suggested an influential quarter of the then BNP regime, including party’s senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman, masterminded the shocking plot engaging militant outfit HuJI and subsequently made a desperate attempt to protect the assailants.