Tarique faces second arrest warrant

DHAKA, July 14 (BSS) - A Dhaka court today issued the second arrest warrant against BNP chief and opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia's now self-exiled elder son Tarique Rahman along with 11 others on a different charge related to the 2004 grenade attack that saw 24 deaths.

Court officials said Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mohammad Zahurul Huq ordered Rahman, also BNP's senior vice-chairman, and the 11 others be arrested under the Explosives Act.

Several of the 11 others were influential political figures during the past BNP-led four-party coalition government and they included former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, former premier Khaleda Zia's political secretary Harris Chowdhury and BNP lawmaker Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad.

Former intelligence and police officials who were faced with the warrant are former director of Forces Intelligence retired major general ATM Amin and former DGFI official sacked lieutenant colonel Saiful Islam Joarder, DMP's former deputy commissioners Obaidur Rahman, Khan Sayeed Hassan and transport business magnet Mohammad Hanif.

The rest were leaders and operatives of militant Harkat-ul- Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) Omar Abu Humayra alias Mir Sahed Baba and Hafez Moulana Yahiya, Babu alias Ratul Babu and Mufti Abdul Hai.

The development came two weeks after Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Enamul Haque issued warrants ordering arrest of Tarique Rahman and 17 others on charges linked to murders in August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally targeting the then opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Judge Huq issued the second warrant scrutinising the case docket and other relevant document and took the charges into cognisance against Tarique and other suspects.

CID earlier today formally accused Rahman and 29 others of the attack after an "extended investigation" into the case while their re- investigations suggested that operatives of militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) carried out the attack which was backed by several stalwarts of the past BNP-led four-party coalition government and security and police officials.

Rahman, who is now in London on a government parole for treatment since 2008, is also an accused in several other criminal and graft cases pending for trial.

Officials familiar with the investigation said of the 30 suspects, 12 including Babar, Mujahid, Abdus Salam Pintu and the two ex-army generals were now in custody to stand the trial in person.

But several of the suspects including Haris Chowdhury, Kaikobad, Amin and three ex- police chiefs were shown "fugitives" along with several others while the CID filed a petition seeking to confiscate the property of the fugitives.

The then BNP-led government with Jamaat-e-Islami being a partner had declared a Taka 1 crore reward for disclosing the names of the people or groups responsible.

The announcement at that time said that "the government has decided to announce the reward since it gives highest priority to the matter" while an investigation was conducted under Babar's supervision.

Twenty people including a vagabond called Judge Mian, a student and an Awami League activist were arrested but none of them were found guilty in the subsequent investigations.

The situation prompted the subsequent interim government to order a fresh investigation into the case and the delayed police charge sheet was filed three and a half years after the attack while the new investigations found links of Babar and several other influential people close to the then government to the attack.

Posted in: Tarique faces second arrest warrant