Shawdesh desk:

Justice remains elusive for the families of the 24 people who were killed and the scores of injured survivors in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka, as the cases have been pending for 19 years.

A total of 24 people were killed and scores injured in August 21, 2004, grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.

Most of those killed and injured in the attack were AL leaders and activists. The then-opposition leader and AL president, Sheikh Hasina, escaped the attack but suffered hearing damage due to the explosions.

The two cases were filed by the police on August 22, 2004, in connection with the attack. One was over the murders, and the other was filed under the Explosive Substances Act.

‘I am still bearing pain from the grenade attack as there are many splinters in my body,’ Rashida Akter Ruma, who was among those injured by grenade splinters, told New Age on Sunday.

Ruma, now a joint secretary general of ‘21 August Bangladesh’, a central organisation of family members of the dead and injured in the grenade attack, urged the government to find all the fugitive convicts and punish them after completing the legal procedures during its tenure.

‘I believe that our leader Hasina will not die without seeking the punishment of the perpetrators of the grenade attack,’ she added.

The trials of the killers of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were completed, and detained killers were executed during her tenure as prime minister, she added.

On October 10, 2018, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 sentenced 19 people to death and jailed 19 others, including current acting Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairman Tarique Rahman, for life and 11 others for varying terms in the two cases over the attack.

Tarique, the eldest son of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, was tried in absentia as he has been staying in London since September 12, 2008.

Five years have passed since the lower court convicted 49 people, but the High Court has still not decided on the reference of the 19 death row convicts and the appeals of most of the 19 life-term recipients and 11 other convicts.

Attorney general AM Amin Uddin told New Age recently that the death reference and the appeals were now pending with the High Court bench of Justice Shahidul Karim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman.

He said that the hearing was not held because Justice Shahidul Karim, the senior member of the bench, is ‘sick’.

The hearing will resume soon after the judge’s recovery from the illness, he added.

The Appellate Division’s registrar, Mohammad Saifur Rahman, told New Age on Sunday that Justice Shahidul Karim, who is suffering from kidney disease and other complications, is now under treatment in Chennai.

Deputy attorney general Bashir Ahmed, who was assigned to conduct the August 21 case for the state, told New Age on Sunday that the High Court bench adjourned the hearing in July after hearing depositions of the 224th prosecution witness out of the total of 235 witnesses in the cases.

He said that the bench initiated the proceedings for hearing the case on September 27, 2020, and heard the cases for 99 working days until July 25.

The bench will hear arguments from lawyers appearing for the accused when the DAG completes reading out the judgements in the case.

‘The government will know better when the High Court’s hearing in the cases concludes,’ Mohammad Ali, one of the lawyers for the defence side, told New Age.

Asked to comment if the hearing would conclude during the tenure of the present government in December, Ali said that it would be impossible for the High Court as the Supreme Court would remain closed from September 1 to October 9.

On November 27, 2018, the references for the 19 death sentence recipients were sent to the High Court for examination of the lower court verdict.