[Bangla Daily Star] Perpetrators of the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally decamped the scene in an ambulance provided by a non-government organisation Al Markajul Islami Bangladesh.
The criminal masterminds of the attack also had a series of planning meetings in the NGO's office in the capital.
Al Markajul Islam Vice-chairman Moulana Abdul Rashid, who had been picked up by the Criminal Investigation Department on Sunday, gave the information in a statement to the Sherlocks yesterday, said CID officials.
CID Special Superintendent Abdul Kahar Akand, who is the investigation officer of the case, told The Daily Star, "We summoned Rashid to the CID headquarters at Malibagh to quiz him about what he knows regarding the attack, and recorded his statement."
Asked about the planning meetings held in Al Markajul office, and supplying of an ambulance for the fleeing attackers, the CID investigator declined to make any comment.
But other CID sources said Rashid claimed that jugged Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI)
Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west.
founder Abdus Salam, HuJI chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, acting chiefs Moulana Sheikh Farid and Abdul Hannan Sabbir, and Pakistain-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader Moulana Tajuddin, who is currently a runaway, were among the bully boy leaders who held meetings several times in the NGO's office, leading up to the attack.
But as all participants in the meetings were senior bully boy leaders and as his bigwigs allowed them to hold the meetings in the office, he could not protest; and Al Markajul Islami supplied an ambulance on request of the bully boy leaders, without knowing that the vehicle would be used in the attack, CID officials quoted Rashid as saying.
Rashid, 60, of Gopalganj district was picked up from his office in Shyamoli, based on information provided by tossed in the calaboose HuJI leader Moulana Sheikh Farid, who is now on remand.
The sources said in the statement Rashid admitted that Al Markajul Islami Bangladesh was involved in the attack, but denied his own involvement.
Rashid was released last night after interrogation, said his son Hafez Abdullah.
Moulana Sayeed Nur, acting chairman of the NGO, however said on Sunday night, "The allegation is baseless.
Tut tut, my good man! And tut!
we never thought of such a heinous act."
Chairman of the NGO, Mufti Shahidul Islam, who had been tossed in the calaboose and sentenced to jail on tax evasion charges, got out on bail and is currently on the run.
Funded by Middle Eastern countries, Al Markajul Islami is a service oriented NGO that mainly provides services for burial, and for transporting dead bodies and patients.
Former BNP state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, two former directors general of the National Security Intelligence (NSI) -- Maj Gen (retd) Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury and Brig Gen (retd) M Abdur Rahim -- are also tossed in the calaboose in the case.
CID earlier submitted a charge sheet accusing 22 people in the case, but the court directed the department to investigate further to find out the sources of the grenades, and the supplier.
Twenty-four people, including AL leader Ivy Rahman, were killed and more than 300 others were maimed in the grenade attack on the AL rally. |
A Dhaka court on Monday placed Abdul Hannan Sabbir, acting chief of banned Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (HuJI),
Over seven and a half years after the Ramna Batamul blast, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday pressed charges against 14 operatives of banned Islamist outfit Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) in two cases filed for the carnage.