Bangladesh News

Investigators are now looking for four attackers who themselves were “injured” in the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in 2004 and stayed off the scene in the last three and a half years.

The investigators said at least four attackers were wounded and committed to a private clinic in Dhanmondi in the capital.

They said the four also hurled grenades at the target from the surface and were wounded in the stray splinters. They fled the scene on a white-coloured microbus, which was on hand near the Golap Shah Mazar.

Soon after the carnage, presence of a white-coloured mysterious microbus and its passengers hurriedly driving off the scene was reported by a number of witnesses. But the then investigators did not take that into their cognisance.

Current investigators said they have reports that the grenades used in the attack were brought from Pakistan and Moulana Tajuddin, brother of former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, had supplied those. But they are yet to identify the channel though which those were brought.

Abdus Salam Pintu, who was arrested by the joint forces on Thursday night at Gulshan in the city and released Sunday night, told The Daily Star: “I was not the mastermind of the grenade attack and no meeting was held at my residence in this regard as I never met Mufti Hannan.”

In reply to a question whether his brother had supplied the grenades, the former minister said: “Tajuddin had relations with Mufti Hannan as they were fellow students at a madrasa in Pakistan. But our family has split up with Tajuddin long ago.”

CID Chief Additional Inspector General Phani Bhushan Chowdhury on Saturday told The Daily Star: “We’re yet to be confirm about the arrest of Abdus Salam Pintu.”

“We have been intensely investigating about his alleged involvement in the August 21 grenade attack and about the alleged meeting at his residence before the massacre,” he added.

Pintu said: “Somebody wants to say that I was angry with Sheikh Hasina as I could not go to Gopalganj despite being the minister in charge of the district. But it’s not true. I had been there on every occasion and I have nothing against Hasina and Gopalganj.”

Sources said before the attack, Pintu, detained chief of Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) Mufti Hannan, Tajuddin and their other accomplices held meetings at Pintu’s Dhanmondi residence.

Contacted, former special super (SS) of the CID Ruhul Amin said: “I have no information about the involvement of Abdus Salam Pintu in the attack.” Amin was charged to investigate the case during the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance and reportedly tried to divert the case by staging a ‘drama’ with Joj Miah.

He declined to make further comments on the issue as a retired police official.

CID Inspector Fazlul Kabir, present investigation officer, told The Daily Star: “We have major developments in the investigation and we’re stepping ahead for submitting the charge sheet.”

He made no comments when asked whether Pintu was behind the attack, which left at least 24 leaders and activists of AL killed and 300 others injured.

After the brutal killings, intelligence from the Scotland Yard and FBI came to Bangladesh to investigate the incident. Besides, the then government constituted a one-member judicial enquiry committee with Justice Jainul Abedin.

Local investigating agencies reportedly misguided the investigation by providing fabricated information. They even arrested an AL leader on charge of the attack and later said terrorists staying in India launched the attack.

Besides, they also arranged a drama introducing Joj Miah forcing him to confess under the section 164. The judicial enquiry committee in its report also pointed fingers at the neighbouring countries.

But three and a half years into the massacre, the case is yet to be detected.