August 21 Attack 2004: Huji man who threw grenades arrested
Rab yesterday arrested a fugitive convict in the August 21 grenade attack case who hurled bombs at the Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in 2004.
The elite force arrested the fugitive, Iqbal Hossain alias Jahangir alias Selim, from the capital's Diabari area around 3:00am, Rab Director General Chowdhury Abdullah al Mamun told a press briefing hours after the arrest.
Iqbal, who is a member of banned militant outfit Harkatul Jihad al Islami, Bangladesh (Huji-B), was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal on October 10, 2018.
The Rab chief said Iqbal fled to Malaysia in 2008. When he was identified as an illegal immigrant late last year, the Malaysian government deported him in December last year.
He was arrested in a joint effort by the National Security Intelligence (NSI) and the Rapid Action Battalion, the Rab chief added.
Asked how Iqbal, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, left the country, the Rab DG said when Iqbal left the country, handwritten passports were in use. He also changed his name at least twice, he added.
"But how he left the country and how he returned is being investigated," the Rab chief said.
The orchestrated attack on the rally of AL President and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left 24 party leaders and activists dead and hundreds of others injured. Hasina, the then leader of the opposition, narrowly survived but suffered injuries to her ear.
In the 2018 verdict, the court sentenced 19 people, including former state minister for home affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar, former deputy education minister Abdus Salam Pintu and two top intelligence officials, to death in connection with the grenade attack.
Among those sentenced to death were 14 members of the militant group Harkatul Jihad (Huji-B).
Besides, 19 people, including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, were sentenced to life in prison and 11 others were given sentences of different terms and fined.
The special court also found Tarique, Babar and 36 others guilty in the case filed under the Explosives Substance Act and handed punishments ranging from death sentence to 20 years in prison.
At the press conference, Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun said Rab has arrested 15 people, including Mufti Hannan and his brother Muhibullah alias Mofiz alias Abhi. In addition, 16 Arges grenades were recovered in 2007.
He said the elite force was trying to arrest Iqbal since the incident. He spent his days in Jhenaidah, Gazipur and Savar in the guise of security guards, workers and rickshaw-pullers, he added.
He fled the country in 2008.
The Rab chief said they had got little time to interrogate Iqbal after his arrest.
Iqbal told Rab that he joined Huji-B through a local member in Jhenaidah in 2001.
He got close to Mufti Hannan and other top Huji leaders in 2003 and took part in militancy training.
"In August 2004, he came to Dhaka on Mufti Hannan's directive and took shelter in a hideout. He developed close relationships with Hannan and other Huji members," the Rab chief said.
He also attended different clandestine meetings with Mufti Hannan.
About the August 21 grenade attack, Iqbal told Rab members that he took part in the attack directly on Hannan's directive. Hannan also supplied him with grenades to perpetrate the attack and he threw grenades targeting the stage.
After the attack, he went into hiding back in Jhenaidah.
Son of Abdul Majid Mollah from Jhenaidah, Iqbal was once involved with BNP's student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, said the Rab DG. He was an elected class representative of KC College (Jhenaidah) student union in 1994. He studied up to HSC.
From 1995 to 1998, he was in Malaysia, where he worked. Upon his return, he was engaged in ISD phone and other businesses.