Tarique among 12 faces 2nd arrest warrant

A Dhaka court Thursday issued the second arrest warrant against BNP chief and opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia's elder son Tarique Rahman along with 11 others on a different charge related to the 2004 grenade attack that saw 24 deaths, reports BSS.

Court officials said Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mohammad Zahurul Huq ordered Tarique Rahman, also BNP's senior vice-chairman, and 11 others be arrested under the Explosives Act.

The 11 others included former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, former premier Khaleda Zia's political secretary Harris Chowdhury and BNP lawmaker Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad.

Former intelligence and police officials who were served with the arrest warrant are former director of Forces Intelligence retired major general ATM Amin and former DGFI official sacked lieutenant colonel Saiful Islam Joarder, DMP's former deputy commissioners Obaidur Rahman, Khan Sayeed Hassan and transport business man Mohammad Hanif.

The rest were leaders and operatives of militant Harkat-ul- Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) Omar Abu Humayra alias Mir Sahed Baba and Hafez Moulana Yahiya, Babu alias Ratul Babu and Mufti Abdul Hai.

The development came two weeks after Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Enamul Haque issued warrants ordering arrest of Tarique Rahman and 17 others on charges linked to murders in August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally targeting the then opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Judge Huq issued the second warrant after scrutinising the case docket and other relevant documents and took the charges into cognisance against Tarique and other suspects.

Earlier CID formally accused Tarique Rahman and 29 others of carrying out the grenade attack after an "extended investigation" into the case while their re- investigations suggested that operatives of militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) carried out the attack which was backed by several stalwarts of the past BNP-led four-party coalition government and security as well as police officials.

Tarique, who is now in London on a government parole for treatment since 2008, is also an accused in several other criminal and graft cases pending for trial.

Officials said of the 30 suspects, 12 including Babar, Mujahid, Abdus Salam Pintu and the two ex-army generals were now in custody to stand the trial in person.

But several of the suspects including Haris Chowdhury, Kaikobad, Amin and three ex- police chiefs were shown "fugitives" along with several others while the CID filed a petition seeking to confiscate the property of the fugitives.

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