Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh Nationalist Party vice-chairman Abdus Salam Pintu walked free on Tuesday from Kashimpur Central Jail after spending nearly 17 years behind bars.

His release follows an acquittal order by the High Court in the 21 August grenade attack case, with the necessary documents reaching the jail late last night.

He stepped out of the prison shortly after 11:00am, greeted by an enthusiastic crowd comprising family members, party leaders and activists. They welcomed him with floral garlands and celebratory processions.

Pintu, a former deputy minister in the BNP-led government, was arrested in connection with the much-talked-about grenade attack on an Awami League rally in 2004. The attack, which claimed the lives of 24 people and injured over 300, is considered one of the most heinous political crimes in Bangladesh’s history. On October 10, 2018, a trial court sentenced Pintu, along with 18 others, to death in the case.

Among the convicts was Lutfozzaman Babar, a former state minister for home affairs.

BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury, and senior BNP leader Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pintu, who had long been involved with the BNP, was the founding general secretary of the Tangail District BNP and served as a Member of Parliament for Tangail-2 (Gopalpur-Bhuiyanpur) in the 1991, 1996, and 2001 national elections.

In 2001, he was appointed as a deputy minister under the BNP-led coalition government.