Investigators said the investigation is complete but they failed to find out the source of the grenade used in the January 27, 2005 attack in lawmaker Kibria's hometown.

The trial is yet to begin although the government announced last year that the trial of the two cases, filed after the carnage, will be held at Sylhet Speedy Trial Tribunal.

The charge sheets in the two cases -- one filed for murder and the other for explosives -- and the report of a high-powered government investigation team have put into question the integrity of the investigators and authenticity of the probes.

In the two charge sheets and the government committee report having almost identical contents, the investigators accused 10 people of the grenade attack, without mentioning anything about the mastermind of the attack and the source of the grenade.

Both Kibria's family and complainant of the cases Advocate Majid Khan, Habiganj district Awami League organising secretary, are dissatisfied with the investigation while the slain AL lawmaker's relatives demand neutral international probe.

Investigation Officer (IO) of the murder case Munshi Atiqur Rahman yesterday told The Daily Star that the trial was delayed as the High Court stayed proceedings of the case after the complainant filed a writ petition demanding further investigation.

"The High Court rejected the prayer and vacated the stay in November. The case docket has been sent to the court and it is now a matter of time to begin the trial," said Atiqur, a senior assistant superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The CID officer brushed aside the necessity of further investigation into the case.

After the attack that took place in Baidder Bazar in Habiganj, the CID was tasked with the probe of the murder case while Officer-in-Charge of Habiganj Sadar Police Station Shafiuzzaman took up the task of the explosives case.

On March 14 last year, the high-powered government committee represented by senior officials of different law enforcement and intelligence agencies submitted the investigation report accusing 10 local leaders and workers of BNP and mentioned that the grenade might have been brought from the frontier area of Sylhet.

Six days later the CID submitted charge sheet in the murder case naming the same 10 BNP men and mentioned that district BNP Vice-president AKM Abdul Quayum, who was later expelled from the party, is one of those who orchestrated the murder.

The other accused are Ayat Ali, Kajal Mia, Selim Ahmed, Tajul Islam, Shahed Ali, Jainal Abedin Jalal, Jamir Ali, Jainal Abedin Mumin and Muhibur Rahman.

OC Shafiuzzaman pressed charges against the same 10 people on April 20 in the other case filed under the Explosive Substance Act. In the charge sheet the investigator said Quayum collected the grenade from Chunarughat area, without mentioning who supplied it.

Kibria's family, however, rejected the investigation saying the investigators were not allowed to work freely and they did not interrogate powerful individuals behind the killing.

All the three probe reports say that the motive behind the killing was election politics. Kibria was murdered to ensure that Quayum is elected from the constituency (Habiganj-2) in the upcoming election, although Quayum is not a potential candidate.

According to the documents, Quayum assumed that the potential local BNP candidates Abu Leis Mobin Chowdhury, GK Gaus and Ashraful Bari Noman would be blamed for the killing and that would clear his way to be a candidate of the ruling party.

Such similarities in the three probe reports have raised questions whether the two charge sheets just followed the government investigation report or whether the investigators of the two cases independently arrived at similar conclusions.

Police so far arrested eight of the charge-sheeted accused while two others -- Kajal Mia and Muhibur Rahman -- are on the run.

Four of the accused -- Tajul, Shahed, Jamir and Mumin -- have already given confessional statements to a magistrate. They, however, prayed to higher court for retraction of their statements alleging that those were extracted by torture in police custody.

Majid Khan, the complainant, said the state of the case is not 'good'. "We demanded further investigation into some points mentioned in the charge sheet, which has not been met. We went to the High Court with the demand and it asked us to make the prayer in the trial court which will hold the trial. But the trial is yet to begin."

Majid said he may go to the Supreme Court against the order on advice of his counsels.

He noted that the investigators have said Quayum made the attack but they did not mention who had given him the grenade. "If they could unearth information about the source of the grenade, it might have helped the investigation into the other grenade attacks that took place in the country in the last couple of years," Majid told The Daily Star.

"According to the investigators, Quayum thought that other leaders who dominate the local BNP politics would have to face public wrath after the killing of Kibira, which would put him (Quayum) in an advantageous position. The party high command always decides who will contest an election from a constituency. Now the question is who assured Quayum of party nomination when he is just a petty leader?" said Majid Khan.

The mastermind could have been unmasked if the investigators could dig out this, he added."When Quayum was produced before the court on April 16 last year, he expressed the desire to say something in the court. The investigation officer then told the court that Quayum confessed to everything he had done. Why his confessional statement was not recorded under section 164 [of the CrPC) then?"Majid asked.

Mentioning some lapses in the investigation, he said: "Why the investigators did not include the Awami League leaders and activists who were accompanying Kibria during the meeting on the day of his assassination as witnesses?

About the investigation, Ruhul Quayum, son of accused Quayum, said his father has been made a scapegoat in the local BNP politics. Rejecting the investigation, Ruhul demanded neutral and international inquiries into the incident to find out the 'real culprits'.

The probe reports have been cooked up to save the real killers, he alleged.