The High Court is almost ready to hear the mandatory death reference on the death sentence awarded by the trial court to the 19 masterminds and implementers of the 21 August 2004 grenade attack.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin said this. He said that the relevant death reference bench of the High Court is now working with the 3,000 page paper book of the lower court which contains all the details of the case.
The Attorney General said, "We hope to finish reading the rest of the pages after just one day of hearing to prepare the case for the death reference hearing."
Amin Uddin said, I think it may take 10 to 12 hearings of the High Court to settle the case. He also said that he thinks the High Court's review may be completed by this October.
A court in Dhaka on October 10, 2018 sentenced 19 people including former state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babar to death and 19 others including acting chairman of BNP Tariq Rahman were sentenced to life imprisonment in this murder case.
Shahed Nooruddin, the judge of the then Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal, jailed 11 others for various terms and made 12 observations about the background, motive and consequences of the attack.
As per the judgment of the judicial court, current prime minister and then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina was the main target of the attack, although she narrowly escaped with her life. But he lost her hearing.
The attack on the Awami League rally held in front of the party's central office on Bangabandhu Avenue left 24 people dead and around 500 injured, including Ivy Rahman, the head of the party's women's wing and wife of Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman.
As the case carried a death sentence and the convicts had also filed an appeal against the verdict, the verdict was sent to the High Court for a mandatory legal review, called a death reference hearing.
The attorney general said the hearing of the case was partially delayed due to the illness of the senior judge of the two-member High Court bench, but it was expected that it would not take long once the bench resumed hearing.
He added, "We (the Attorney General's Office) have looked at the entire verdict, and found it to be correct." We shall apply for the upholding of the judgment of the lower court after a thorough examination of the points of law.
According to the Attorney General's Office, Justice Shahidul Karim and Justice Md. Mustafizur Rahman nominated Chief Justice Hasan Faiz Siddiqui. On December 5, 2022, the bench started the process of hearing the death reference and the appeal of the convicts.
Amin Uddin said, 'There are actually two cases here; One on murder and the other on the Explosives Act, both very important as the conspirators tried to destroy our democratic system with that unprecedented attack.
The other main convicts sentenced to death are the then deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, his brother militant Huji leader Maulana Tajuddin, former intelligence officers Major General Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and former Brigadier General Abdur Rahim of NSI.
The rest of the convicts sentenced to death are militants Maulana Sheikh Abdus Salam, Abdul Majed Bhat, Abdul Malek, Shawkat Osman, Mohibullah, Abu Saeed, Abul Kalam Azad, Jahangir Alam, Hafez Abu Taher, Hussain Ahmed Tamim, Moin Uddin Sheikh, Rafiqul Islam and Mohammad Ujjal and Transport businessman Mohammad Hanif.
Apart from Rahman, the politicians who have been sentenced to life imprisonment are Harish Chowdhury, the then political advisor of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and former member of parliament of BNP Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaykobad.
Militants Shahadat Ullah alias Jewel, Abdur Rauf, Sabbir Ahmed, Arif Hasan, Hafez Yahia, Abu Bakr, Ariful Islam, Mahibul Muttakin, Anisul Mursalin, Mohammad Khalil, Jahangir Alam Badar, Mohammad Iqbal, Liton, Shafiqur Rahman, Abdul Hai and Ratul Ahmed Babu was sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
Attackers attacked Awami League's anti-terrorist peace rally with 'Arges' grenades. On August 21, 2004, the day after the grenade attack, two cases were registered under the Murder and Explosives Act.
In the case brought after the horrific incident, the influential circles of the BNP-Jamaat alliance tried to hide the main facts and the criminals by giving a confessional statement to the innocent Judge Mia.
In 2007, when the then caretaker government re-opened the investigation into the grenade attack, many of the facts behind the attack came out in front of the countrymen. With the support of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government at the top level, many then high-ranking officials of the Home Ministry, National Security Intelligence Agency, CID and Police were aware of the August 21 grenade attack and many were directly involved in it.
Evidence revealed that the attack was planned after a meeting at the residence of Deputy Minister Abdus Salam Pintu of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government. There it was decided to kill the top leaders of the Awami League including Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the opposition party, by carrying out a grenade attack. The involvement of Abdul Salam Pintu's brother, militant Tajuddin, and the handing over of Arges grenades to the assassins came out. According to the statements of the accused, among those involved in the attack are State Minister for Home Lutfuzzaman Babar, Deputy Minister Abdus Salam Pintu, then Director General of Defense Intelligence Rezzakul Haider and Director General of NSI Abdur Rahim, then Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami and Minister Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid (executed as war criminal)
The details of all the incidents and the involved persons including the names of militant leader Tajuddin, Maulana Farid, Mufti Abdul Hannan (executed in another case), Maulana Abdul Salam and Kashmiri militant Abdul Majed Bhat emerged.
The police filed the charge sheet on June 9, 2008 and the court indicted the accused on September 29, 2008. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police filed a supplementary charge sheet in the court on 2 July 2011 and the court on 18 March 2012 framed fresh charge sheet taking cognizance of the new charge sheet.
The lower court on November 27, 2018 sent 37,385 pages of judgment documents to the High Court for further legal proceedings and the High Court on January 13, 2019.
The High Court also accepted the appeal of the convicts for simultaneous hearing.