Quader describes 21 Aug attack as planned

Obaidul QuaderFile photo

Ruling Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Saturday said the 21 August grenade attack was not an accident rather it was a planned terrorist act abusing state machinery.

“BNP perpetrated the grenade attack abusing the state machinery when the party was in power. The 21 August grenade attack was carried out in continuation of 15 August carnage,” he said.

Quader, also minister for road transport and bridges, was addressing a memorial meeting, joining it virtually from his official residence on parliament premises, arranged by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) at its Bangabandhu Avenue central office.

Recalling the incident of the grenade attack on AL rally, he said on that period, party volunteers and workers generally took positions in and around the stage of rallies and surrounding buildings, but the workers were halted to carry out their duties on that day.

The AL general secretary said the then four-party alliance government led by BNP halted the trial and investigation into the grenade attack and staged ‘Joj Mia’ drama to divert the incident to a different direction.

Terming Hawa Bhaban, the alternative power house of the then BNP government, as mastermind of the attacks, Quader said all evidences were destroyed after the attack and they (BNP) blocked Scotland Yard from investigating into the incident while cooperation was not extended to FBI to investigate it.

Mentioning that BNP’s top leadership had known everything about the blue print, he said various documents and statements of Mufti Hannan, kingpin of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, and others revealed who perpetrated the grisly attacks and who held meetings to lunch it.

AL presidium member Abdur Rahman, BCL general secretary Lekhok Bhattacharjee, Dhaka University unit of BCL president Sanjit Chandra Das and general secretary Saddam Hussain addressed the meeting, among others, with BCL president Al-Nahean Khan Joy in the chair.