Aug 21 attack: AL will go to Supreme Court for death to Tarique Rahman

Awami League will go to the top court to seek BNP acting chief Tarique Rahman’s maximum punishment in connection with Aug 21 grenade attack case.

“He is the mastermind of the attack. We’ll definitely submit a writ petition to the Supreme Court to seek highest punishment for him,” said Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader responding to a question at an event in Dhaka on Wednesday.

The event was organised to mark the 15th anniversary of August 21 grenade attack at the meeting venue of Awami League. A total of 24 people were killed and many others injured when a series of grenades ripped through the meeting of the party, then in opposition, on Bangabandhu Avenue on Aug 21, 2004.

“Harkatul Jihad chief Mufti Abdul Hannan in a confessional statement said that they carried out the attack under the direction of Tarique Rahman. So, the mastermind behind the attack should get the capital punishment.”

Quader added that the political relationship between BNP-Jamaat and the ruling party has been ruined forever after the Aug 15, 1975 assassination of Bangabandhu and the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack.

Expressing hope that the Aug 21 killings will be tried like Aug 15, he said, “The killings have been tried in the court. But we’re preparing the paper-book for the August 21 grenade attack cases and the hearings on death references will begin.”

On Oct 10, 2018, a Dhaka court sentenced 19 people to death and Tarique Rahman along with 18 others to life imprisonment in two cases over the grenade attack.