Prosecution pleas for deposition of 20 more witnesses in Aug 21 Case

The prosecution of August 21 grenade attack case has petitioned a court to take depositions of 20 witnesses who were not listed in the charge sheet.

The new witnesses include Magistrate Shahrian Mahmud Adnan who had recorded the testimony of accused Moulana Abdur Rashid.

The list also has names of three people who had testified before the investigation officer of the case but were not mentioned as witnesses in the charge sheet, said chief prosecutor Syed Rezaur Rahman.

The petition was filed on Feb 2 before a special court set up in Dhaka to try the case. Feb 8 has been fixed for the next hearing on the plea.

Depositions of the 20 witnesses needed to be recorded for the sake of justice, the prosecution argued in the petition.

The court recorded testimony of the 207th witness, Monir Hossain who was a sub-inspector of Motijheel Police Station at the time of the incident, on Feb 1 and 2.

Awami League leader Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, also former home minister, gave his testimony on Jan 26.

Among the accused present at the court on that day were former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar,  Harkat-ul Jihad Al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI, B) leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s nephew Saiful Islam Duke, and former inspector generals of police Md Ashraful Huda, Shahudul Huq and Khoda Baksh Chowdhury.

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid too was an accused in the case.

He was executed for crimes he committed during Bangladesh’s war of liberation in 1971.

Twenty-four people were killed and more than 100 injured in the grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on Aug 21, 2004.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was then the opposition chief, narrowly escaped death.

BNP-Jamaat alliance was in power at the time.