Bangladesh
Sajeeb Wazed Joy August 21 grenade attack was planned in Hawa Bhaban: Joy
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, August 25: Prime Minister's ICT Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy said that before the grenade attack on August 21, 2004, BNP leader Tareq Rahman held a meeting with the planners and implementers of the attack at Hawa Bhaban.
He said this in a 2-minute visual statement in a post on his verified Facebook account on Tuesday.
Sajib Wazed Joy said that on August 14, 2004, Tareq Rahman met with then BNP government's state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babar and Harkat-ul-Jihad leaders Mufti Hannan and Maulana Tajuddin at Hawa Bhaban, the alternative power centre of BNP that time.
He said that Tareq Rahman had ordered the killing of the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, even promising the help of law enforcement agencies and state agencies to implement the plan.
Bangabandhu's self-confessed and convicted murderer Noor Chowdhury, former secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, political secretary of the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, Abul Haris Chowdhury, deputy minister of BNP-Jamaat coalition government Abdus Salam Pintu and others were also present in the Hawa Bhaban meeting.
Joy also said that two days later, on August 16, a second meeting was held at Babar's residence on Minto Road in the capital, where the entire plan was formulated and decisions were finalized.
Finally, they met again on August 18 at Pintu's residence, where Babar handed over 12 arges grenades to the Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad in the presence of Pintu's brother Tajuddin and then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's nephew Saiful Islam Duke.
On August 21, 2004, Harkat-ul-Jihad detonated a grenade during an anti-terrorism rally led by the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina in front of the Awami League's central office on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.
At least 26 Awami League leaders and activists were killed in the grenade blast. The police allegedly helped the assailants escape from the spot. Law and order forces even prevented the injured from being taken to the hospital. Police quickly washed the scene with water to destroy all evidence.
"Later, Tareq and Duke, with the help of state agencies, sent the mastermind of the attack, Tajuddin, to Pakistan," Joy said.
