Aug 21 grenade attack convicts: Where are they?

Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal sentenced 19 people to death, handed 19 others life terms and penalised another 11 with different jail terms on Oct 11, 2018 for their roles in the 2004 grenade attack.

Former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar was among those who received capital punishment. Acting BNP chief Tarique Rahman was sentenced to life in prison over the attack which left 24 people dead and injured another 500.

The daylight attack killed Awami League leader Ivy Rahman, the wife of the late president Zillur Rahman. Mayor Mohammad Hanif of the then undivided Dhaka was among those injured in the attack.

Former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar is being taken into custody from the Dhaka tribunal on Wednesday after the announcement of the verdict in the grenade attack case. Photo: Abdullah Al Momin

The case involves the attack that targeted Hasina, who was the opposition leader at the time and now the prime minister of Bangladesh. She narrowly escaped death, surviving with a partial hearing loss.

There were a total of 49 people named in the case. The former state minister for home, Babar, and 30 others are behind bars. The other 18, including Tarique Rahman and Haris Chowdhury, former political adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, are named as fugitives in the case.

Three other accused, former minister and Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and HuJI leaders Mufti Abdul Hannan and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul have been hanged after convictions in other cases.

WHEREABOUTS OF THE CONVICTS

Tarique: He has been living in London with his family since 2008.

Babar: A member of the BNP’s central committee, he was a parliamentarian during the regime of the four-party alliance. He is in jail.

Haris: He is the former joint secretary general of BNP who served as the political secretary to the then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. He left the country after the army-backed caretaker government took over. He was sentenced to life in jail in the grenade attack case. His whereabouts are unknown.

Abdus Salam Pintu: The vice-chairman of BNP, who was a parliamentarian and the deputy minister for education during the regime of the four-party alliance. He is in jail, awaiting the conclusion of a death verdict against him.

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid: He was the secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami and served as the social welfare minister during the regime of the four-party alliance. He was hanged in 2015 in a war crimes case.

Mufti Mohammad Abdul Hannan: The mastermind of the assassination attempt on Hasina and a key leader of banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami walked the gallows in the case in 2017.

Maulana Tajik Islam aka Maulana Tajuddin: The brother of Pintu, Tajik Islam has been absconding since the grenade attack case opened. He is believed to have fled to South Africa. He has been sentenced to death in the case.

Maj Gen (retired) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury:

He was the director-general of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence during the reign of the four-party alliance. He is behind bars, with a death verdict in the case hanging over him.

Brig Gen (retired) Abdur Rahim: The director-general of National Security Intelligence during the four-party regime, Abdur Rahim is currently in prison with a death penalty hanging over him.

Md Hanif: The owner of Hanif Enterprise, Hanif was sentenced to death. He is a fugitive in the case.

Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad: The vice-chairman of BNP and former MP for Cumilla-3. He was handed a life term over the grenade attack case. He is currently in Saudi Arabia.

Maj Gen (retired) ATM Amin: He was a director of DGFI when the four-party alliance was in power. He was later promoted to the chief of the intelligence agency during the reign of the army-backed caretaker government. He flew to the United States at the end of the caretaker government’s regime and is recorded as a fugitive in the case.

Lt Col (retired) Saiful Islam Zoarder: The former army officer is reportedly living in Canada. He has been sentenced to two years in jail.

Lt Commander (retired) Saiful Islam Duke: The former naval officer is Khaleda Zia’s nephew. He has been sentenced to two years in jail. He is behind bars.

Shahudul Haque: Currently in prison, he was the inspector general of police from April 2003 to December 2004. He has been sentenced to two years in jail. 

Mohammad Ashraful Huda: He was the inspector general of police during the BNP-Jamaat government from December 2004 to April 2005. The court jailed him for two years.

Khoda Baksh Chowdury: He served as an additional inspector general of police during the BNP-Jamaat government. Later, he was promoted to the inspector general of police. He has been sentenced to three years in jail. Currently, he is in jail.

Ruhul Amin, former special superintendent of police at the Criminal Investigation Department, Munshi Atiqur Rahman, a former senior ASP, and Abdur Rashid, a former ASP, are in jail. All three had been investigation officers of the case. They have been sentenced to three years in prison.