21 Aug grenade attack case appeal hearing to start this year: Law minister

Law minister Anisul Huq on Wednesday said the appeal hearing in the 21 August grenade attack case will start within the next two to four months, reports UNB.

“The verdict’s paper book is being prepared and it’ll be finalised very soon,” he told newsmen at the Secretariat.

“It’s taking time since testimonies of 225 witnesses were recorded,” he explained. “We hope the appeal hearing will start within this year.”

On this day in 2004, a grenade attack was carried out on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka when the BNP-Jamaat alliance was in office. Sheikh Hasina, the then leader of the opposition, was apparently the target.

At least 24 people, including the AL women affairs secretary and late president Zillur Rahman’s wife Ivy Rahman, were killed. Three hundred others were injured. Sheikh Hasina escaped the attack unhurt but her hearing was affected badly.

A Dhaka court on 10 October last year sentenced 19 people, including former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, to death. Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, and 18 others were sentenced to life in prison.

Responding to a question about the fugitive convicts, Anisul said: “The process to bring them back is on but there’s some complexity.”

He declined to comment when asked about the government’s plan to bring back Tarique.