Editorial
Aug 21 grenade attack case
The trial should be transparent
One can assume that with the submission of supplementary charge-sheets of the August 21 grenade attack case, the process of investigation has ended and the trial would commence soon. It has consumed nearly seven years for the investigation, into what was perhaps the most blatant act of violence in recent history of Bangladesh, to be completed. It has taken fourteen extensions, before the CID could submit the supplementary charge sheets accusing 30 new persons of involvement with the dastardly attack.
However, what we are concerned most about is the comment of the Metropolitan Public Prosecutor that the investigation has found evidence that the attack was planned and conducted in collaboration with some militant organisations, the party office of the then prime minister, and in which the administration played a collusive role. The supplementary charge-sheets include, among others, names of a many political personalities belonging to the senior BNP ranks and retired military and police officers holding senior posts during that time.
The attack on the AL meeting on August 21 2004 was unlike any other bomb or grenade attack, whose possible impact, had it succeeded, God forbid, in taking out the intended targets, we shudder even to contemplate. One recalls with a sense of abhorrence how the course of investigation was sought to be diverted, and how persons with the remotest connection with the incident were roped in, to, as one can assume, hide the real perpetrators and the planners of the attack, during the erstwhile 4-party regime.
The BNP has made this into a political issue, terming the charge-sheets as an attempt to defile the Zia -- family image. We are not surprised at the reaction of the BNP. Given the nature of the family centric politics in Bangladesh, such reactions are only but natural. But, while we do not want to comment on the accused, we insist on the need for a transparent trial where the result of the investigation is established through incontrovertible evidence, all the more so because the nation would like to know the real brain behind a most condemnable act that took the lives of 24 besides injuring hundreds others.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments