Dhaka: A former BNP minister, accused of
having links to the 2004 grenade attack on a rally in which
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was wounded, will be interrogated
by police in judicial custody, a Bangladesh court said on Wednesday.
A High Court bench comprising Justices Syed Mohamad
Dastagir Hussain and Mohamad Raisuddin issued the order on a
petition moved by a BNP lawyer.
Lutfuzzaman Babar was junior minister for home in
ex-premier Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)
government.
Earlier, magistrate M Ehsanul Huq granted the five day
remand against a police prayer for 10 days after a brief
hearing while Babar, already serving 17 years of imprisonment
on another criminal charge, was escorted to the crowded
courtroom under heavy security escorts.
"He (Babar) needs to be interrogated as his involvement
in the (August 21,204) grenade attack was proved in
depositions of prosecution witnesses," said the petition by
CID, which was tasked to re-investigate the case.
Witnesses said a number of pro-BNP lawyers protested the
order at the court prompting policemen to whisk the ex-state
minister out of the heavily guarded court complex.
Hasina narrowly escaped the attack but it had killed 24
people as assailants hurled 13 grenades as she was addressing
a rally of her Awami League in front of the party’s central
office.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 20:36