Home boss explains slow pace in trial

The government will speed up the trial of the August 21 grenade attack case soon after finishing the trial of the sensational 10-truck arms haul case, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir said yesterday.
“The accused in the two cases are almost the same and they are being produced before a Chittagong court twice a week in the arms haul case. For this, the Dhaka court dealing with the grenade attack case is getting only two working days a week to hold the trial," he told a discussion at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital.
Upon the completion of the trial of the arms haul case, the Dhaka court will hold hearings five times a week to speed up the trial, added the minister.
He alleged that the previous BNP-led four-party alliance government in 2004 did not want to hold the trial of the grenade attack case. It had ordered the police stations not to take cases “because the top brass of their government were involved in the attack which was launched to kill the then top opposition leaders.
“After the attack, the home minister, IGP, DMP commissioner did not bother to visit the spot," the minister said while speaking at a meeting organised by “21st August Bangladesh”, an organisation of the injured in the gruesome attack.
He also said that following the incident, then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina asked her party leaders and activists to have patience and avoid engaging in any subversive activities.
"She asked us to arrange for the treatment of the injured first. We took the injured to government hospitals but the pro-BNP doctors did not let us enter them. Since then, many of us, including Communication Minister Obaidul Quader, have borne grenade splinters in their bodies," he added.
The minister also urged people to protest the activities of Jamaat-Shibir men, saying that they were trying to “create anarchy all over the country in the name of Islam”.
Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique also spoke at the occasion.