Timeline: 20 years of August 21 grenade attack

The High Court (HC) is set to deliver its verdict on death reference and appeal on August 21 grenade attack cases on Sunday. The cases (death reference, appeal, and jail appeal) are listed as item numbers 54 and 55 in the cause list for the HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain.

Here is the 20 years timeline of the incident:

August 21, 2004: In the broad daylight of August 21, 2004, the heinous grenade attack was launched on a rally of the then opposition Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka. Awami League President Sheikh Hasina was addressing a party rally protesting a recent incidents of blasts in Sylhet with a call "to end the rule of the government that inspires bomb attacks".  Around 25,000 leaders and activists of the party were present there. Hasina had just ended her speech pronouncing "Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu" at 5:22pm when a grenade exploded two yards from the makeshift stage on a truck she was standing. A shower of grenades followed in the next one and half minutes, with a total of 13 explosions that ripped through the rally premises. The plot failed as Sheikh Hasina survived the attack narrowly because some of her party leaders protected her by forming a human shield around her. However, 24 people were killed, including AL Women Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman, and over 400 were injured in the attack.

Those who lost lives: 1. Sheikh Hasina's bodyguard Lance Corporal (Retd.) Mahbub 2. Rafiqul Islam alias Ada Chacha 3. Freedom fighter Mohammad Hanif 4. Ratan Sikder 5. Hasina Momtaz Rina 6. Rizia Begum 7. Sufia Begum 8. Liton Munshi 9. Abdul Quddus Patwari 10. Abul Kalam Azad 11. Abbas Uddin Sikder 12. Atiq Sarkar 13. Mamun Mridha 14. Nasir Uddin Sardar 15. Abul Kashem 16. Belal Hossain 17. Abdur Rahim 18. Aminul Islam Moazzem 19. Zahed Ali 20. Motaleb Hossain 21. Mushtaq Ahmed Sentu 22. Momen Ali 23. M Shamsuddin 24. Ishaq Mia and 25. Ivy Rahman.

Filing of case and Joj Mia drama: The day after the grenade attack, on August 22, 2004, two separate cases were filed with the capital's Motijheel Police Station under murder and explosives acts. The cases were later handed over to the Detective Branch. The then government then quickly handed over the two cases to the CID. Munshi Atiqur Rahman, then Assistant Superintendent of Police of the CID, was given the responsibility of investigating the case. On June 9, 2005, police picked one Md Jalal aka Joj Mia from his Noakhali house in connection with the cases. Joj Mia used to earn a living by selling posters and cassettes near Gulistan Cinema Hall. In early June 2005, he went to his village home at Senbagh in Noakhali after he fell ill. Joj Mia, who was initially clueless about the reason behind his arrest, was first taken to Senbagh Police Station.

Later, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials brought him to the capital and tortured him, compelling him to give a confessional statement in connection with the grenade attack. Later, media exposed that the police were paying Joj Mia's needy family a monthly allowance in exchange of his posing as an attacker.

Everything changed with the political upheaval: When the caretaker government came to power in 2007, the investigation into the case started anew. And once the payments stopped, Joj Mia's family disclosed the whole thing to the media, detailing how the CID tried to spread a made-up story about the grenade attack. Joj Mia, who was framed, was proven innocent. He was released from prison on July 27, 2009. Then he gave a statement as a witness in the case. In it, the names of the three CID officers who staged the 'Joj Mia drama' came up. A case was filed with the Paltan Model Police Station on March 30, 2009, accusing the three CID officers in question of plotting the case to divert the investigation into a different way and destroying evidence in the case. Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police Fazlul Kabir of the CID, filed the case as the plaintiff. Then the court barred the three CID officers from leaving the country. In addition, they were made accused in the main case of the August 21 attack.

Trial court verdict in the case: Fourteen years after the events, in 2018, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal handed down death penalty to 19 convicts and life imprisonment to 19 others in the case. In the verdict, 19 people, including former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar and former Deputy Minister for Education Abdus Salam Pintu, were sentenced to death. In addition, the trial court ordered life imprisonment for 19 people, including BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, and imprisonment for various terms and fines for 11 others.

Those who get punishment: Major death penalty recipients are former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, his brother Maulana Tajuddin (fugitive), intelligence officials former major general Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and former brigadier general Abdur Rahim, who died later.

The rest of the condemned convicts are extremist suspects maulana Sheikh Abdus Salam, Yusuf Butt alias Majid Butt, Abdul Malek alias Golam Mohammad, Maulana Shawkat Osman, Mohibullah alias Mofizur Rahman alias Ovi, Maulana Abu Sayeed alias Dr Abu Zafar, Abul Kalam Azad alias Bulbul, Jahangir Alam, Maulana Abu Taher, and Hossain Ahammed Tamim, Mufti Moinuddin Sheikh alias Abu Zandal alias Masum Billah, Rafikul Islam alias Rashed alias Sabuj and Mohammad Ujjal alias Ratan, and transport owner Md Hanif.

Of the convicts, Tajuddin and Hanif were fugitives.

Besides Tarique Rahman, the political figures who were sentenced to life imprisonment are former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s then political adviser Haris Chowdhury, who died later, and former BNP lawmaker Qazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad.

Jahangir Alam Alias Badar, Mohammad Iqbal, Mohibul Muttakin, Ratul Ahmed Basu, Mufti Shafikur Rahman, Maulana Liton Alias Zobir alias Delwar, Mufti Abdul Hai, Anisul Mursalin, Md Khalilur Rahman, Maulana Abu Bakar alias Selim Howlader sentenced to life imprisonment remain fugitives.

Of the 19 life term recipients Maulana Abdur Rouf, Ariful Islam Arif, Shahadatullah Jewel, Maulana Sabbir Ahmed alias Abdul Hannan Sabbir, Asif Hasan alias Sujan alias Abdul Razzak, and Maulana Yahya are in custody.

The wait is over: The matter was registered as a death reference case in the High Court on November 27, 2018, to approve the death sentence after the verdict of the trial court. On the other hand, the convicts in prison filed separate jail appeals and regular appeals in two cases through the prison authorities. The state started hearings the murder case in a dual bench on December 4, 2022. However, after the change of government, when one of the judges of the dual bench changed, the bench for hearing the appeal was reconstituted. In continuation of this, the appeal hearing began again on October 31 in the newly constituted bench. On November 21, the death reference and appeal hearing of the accused against the verdict of the trial court in this case ended. On that day, the High Court kept the case awaiting (CAV) for the announcement of the verdict. On Saturday, the case was kept for verdict at number 54 in the Sunday agenda on the Supreme Court website.