Huji leaders got the go-ahead from Tarique Rahman to stage the August 21 grenade attack on Awami League rally

Huji leaders got the go-ahead from Tarique Rahman to stage the August 21 grenade attack on Awami League rally at a meeting in Hawa Bhaban a few days before the blasts in 2004.

Aug 21 supplementary charge sheet reveals how grisly grenade attack was carried out with the help of admin, DGFI, NSI, police and then ruling alliance leaders

Lutfozzaman Babar, then state minister for home, Harris Chowdhury, political secretary to then prime minister Khaleda Zia, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, the then NSI director Brig Gen Abdur Rahim and the then DGFI director Brig Gen Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury were present at that meeting.

The attack was the result of collaboration between Huji, influential leaders of BNP and Jamaat, home ministry, police, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), National Security Intelligence (NSI) and officials of the then Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

This is what investigators have found in further probe into the conspiracy behind the attack and described in the supplementary charge sheets in the August 21 cases. The Daily Star has lately obtained copies of the charge sheets submitted in July.According to the charges, it was the second meeting between the leaders of banned militant group Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) and BNP leaders including Tarique, elder son of Khaleda.

The first one was also held at Hawa Bhaban, widely considered the alternative centre of power during the last BNP rule.

At that meeting, earlier that year, Huji leaders sought support in executing their plans to assassinate Sheikh Hasina and other top AL leaders. BNP lawmaker Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad helped arrange the meeting.Tarique assured the Huji men of all-out support. He reiterated his assurance to Huji boss Mufti Hannan and his associates at the second meeting.This paved the way for the August 21 blasts at AL rally on Bangabandhu Avenue. Twenty-four leaders and workers including Ivy Rahman, wife of now President Zillur Rahman, were killed and 300 others including Sheikh Hasina were injured in the blasts.

The second meeting took place in mid-August. Huji leaders Mufti Hannan, Moulana Abu Taher, Moulana Sheikh Farid, Moulana Tajuddin and Moulana Abdur Rashid of Al Markazul Islam, a non-government organisation, went to Hawa Bhaban on a microbus of the NGO.The charge sheets say they left Moulana Rashid on the ground floor and went upstairs to meet Tarique, the second most powerful leader in then BNP.The Huji leaders later met Babar at the residence of former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu on August 18, three days before the attack.Owner of Hanif transport Mohammad Hanif and BNP ward commissioner Ariful Islam Arif attended that meeting.

Babar and Pintu assured the Huji leaders that Hanif and Arif would give them all sorts of assistance and that “they would receive all administrative assistance”.

The Arges grenades used in the attack were smuggled from Pakistan. Tajuddin, Salam Pintu's brother, took the grenades from Pintu's Dhanmondi residence to Mufti Hannan's office in Badda on August 20. The final preparations and strategy for the attack were decided at that meeting.In the first charge sheets in the grenade attack cases in 2008, charges were brought against Abdus Salam Pintu and 21 Huji leaders.The supplementary charge sheets included Tarique and other BNP leaders along with the DGFI, NSI, police and PMO officials.

Some police officers deliberately did not take security measures so that the perpetrators could flee the scene.

The then Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Ashraful Huda, who later went on to become the Inspector General of Police, went abroad on the day of the attack without ordering necessary security measures for the AL rally.On his return, he did not take any punitive measures against the law enforcers who had been negligent in their duties on the venue on that day.The then IGP Shahudul Haque purposely did not update himself with the police security measures taken on the rally venue.He did not even visit the spot after the attack, though it was only around 500 yards from his office. He also did not give any directives to identify or arrest the perpetrators.Tajuddin, supplier of the grenades used in the attack, left the country for Pakistan on instructions from Babar. Khaleda Zia was aware of this.Tajuddin was given a fake passport with the name “Badal”. Saiful Islam Duke, Khaleda's nephew and also private secretary, Duke's brother-in-law and DGFI official Lt Col Saiful Islam Joarder, and another top DGFI official Major Gen (rtd) ATM Amin had helped him flee the country.