Seven years on . . .

The grenade attacks which took the lives of twenty four people at an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 remains a festering sore on the conscience of the nation. That is because seven years after the grisly attacks the process of crime and punishment is yet to run its course. In any civilised society, it would be the task of government to quickly go into a handling of such a crime, nab the culprits, bring them to trial and thereby restore public confidence in the rule of law. It might sound like a cliché, but it must be noted with deep regret that the government in office at the time of the explosions unconscionably failed to rise to the challenge of handling the crisis. Worse, with subsequent allegations coming in of powerful individuals being involved in the crime and of a search for scapegoats getting underway, people's hopes for an unearthing of facts was rudely dashed.
Fortunately, first during the period of the last caretaker government and then under the present one, efforts to get to the bottom of the truth were initiated. On June 11, 2008, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed charges against 24 people in connection with the blasts. Later, on May 23, 2009, a court empowered the CID to investigate the incident further, which eventually was followed by the submission of a supplementary charge sheet on July 3 this year. The new charge sheet was widened to include some more functionaries of the government of the time and those associated with it. The authorities have now informed the country that the trial process regarding the blasts will commence on August 25.
The nation waits to see the process of justice reach a full, purposeful conclusion through a ferreting out of the whole truth behind the tragedy. It is in the national interest that the process be fair and beyond reproach. Through identifying and punishing the guilty, the truth that no one, however highly placed, can get away with criminality must be upheld.