Interpol issued red notice for grenade supplier

Four years into the grisly grenade attacks on an Awami League rally on this day, neither the supplier of the grenades has been arrested nor the channel through which those were smuggled in could be tracked down.
The investigation officer (IO) of the two cases filed in connection with the grenade attacks submitted charge sheet on June 11 this year against 22 people including grenade supplier Maulana Tajuddin, younger brother of former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, also a charge-sheeted accused in the cases.
Investigators suspect that Tajuddin is holed up either in Pakistan or in South Africa.
Assistant Superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Fazlul Kabir, also the IO of the cases, said the Interpol has already issued 'red notice' against Tajuddin following a CID request.
"However, we are yet to get any confirmed information on his whereabouts," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
Sources said Tajuddin has close links with three Pakistan-based Islamist militant organisations Harkatul Mujahideen, Hijbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Tayaba. Any of the militant outfits might have provided him with grenades.
Tajuddin also has close ties with detained Huji leader Mufti Abdul Hannan who studied with him at a Quwami madrasa in Lahore of Pakistan in the 80s.
Mufti Hannan, one of the masterminds of the grenade attacks that left 24 AL leaders and activists dead and scores injured, is also a charge-sheeted accused in the cases.
A top intelligence official said the statements of Huji leaders, held with grenades, suggest that Pakistan-based militant organisations sent several consignments of grenades to Islamist militants in India via Bangladesh.
Mufti Hannan and other militants used grenades from the consignment for carrying out the August 21 grenade attacks.
Maulana Tajuddin, who supplied the grenades for the August 21 attacks, helped militants use Bangladesh as a transit point for smuggling grenades.
CID investigators said if Tajuddin is arrested, the channel through which the grenades were smuggled in and also the people involved in it could be tracked down.