Mufti Hannan remanded in Bagerhat bomb attack case

Outlawed Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan yesterday said that the former BNP and the four-party alliance government held him on trumped-up charges during its tenure.
"Investigation now shows that many of the then top leaders had hand in the August 21 grenade attack," Hannan told the court.
"I was taken on remand for 369 days in 22 cases and brutally tortured in last five years,'' he said requesting the court not to grant any further remand.
Hannan pleaded innocent before the court and claimed he was not the chief of Huji, not even a member of the organisation.
Bagerhat Judicial Magistrate Court-2, however, placed him on a two-day demand in a case for bomb attack on Sheikh Helal's public meeting at Mollahat upazila in 2001.
Judge M Nur Nabi granted the bail at noon after hearing when CID police produced him before the court seeking a seven-day remand for interrogation.
CID police started fresh investigation as the case was revived on January 28 this year, reports UNB.
Nine people were killed and 54 others injured in the bomb attack on a rally of Awami League leader Sheikh Helaluddin at Khalilur Rahman Degree College ground on September 23, 2001.
The then president of AL Mollahat upazila unit Chowdhury Ziaul Alam filed a case with Mollahat police station the following day naming BNP Bagerhat district president and former lawmaker MAH Selim and 165 others as accused.
ASP Mowla Box of CID Jessore zone submitted final report to the Special Tribunal-1 of Bagerhat on December 7, 2003.
Earlier, police interrogated six JMB members, now detained in the district jail, in this connection. Police said they gave sensational information during interrogation.