Hannan, 12 other Huji men charged

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday pressed charges against 13 members of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji) including its chief Mufti Abdul Hannan in two cases filed over the bomb blasts on a CPB rally in 2001.
Of the 13 accused, Huji chief Mufti Hannan, Mufti Mainuddin Sheikh, Arif Hassan Sumon, Maulana Sabbir Ahmed, Maulana Shawkat Osman and Md Moshiur Rahman are currently behind bars while Mufti Abdul Hai, Shafiqur Rahman, Jahangir Alam Badar, Md Nur Islam, Mohibul Mustakin, Anisur Rahman and Rafiqul Alam Miraj have been absconding ever since the incident.
Earlier in his confessional statement, Mainuddin had admitted his involvement in carrying out the attack, and said Mufti Hannan and several others were involved in this as well.
Of the cases, one was filed for killing five people and injuring 50 others while another was filed under the Explosive Substances Act following the bomb attack on a rally of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) at the capital's Paltan Maidan on January 21, 2001.
CID Inspector Mrinal Kanti Saha, also the Investigation Officer (IO) of the cases, submitted two charge sheets to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka with a list of 107 prosecution witnesses.
During the investigation, 26 people including Mufti Hannan were arrested for their alleged involvement with the bomb attack.
The names of 20 people have been dropped from the charge sheets as no evidence of their involvement could be found.
According to the charge sheets, the accused carried out the blasts on the pretext that the CPB members were "atheists".
Asked about the charge sheets, the then CPB president Monzurul Ahsan Khan, also the complainant of the cases, told The Daily Star that he was satisfied with charge sheets despite the fact that it took 12 years for the police to do that.
Soon after the blasts, police arrested 12 people but the CID, in its final investigation report submitted on December 17, 2003, cleared the arrestees of the charges as no "correct, impartial and reliable" evidence was found against them.
Later the home ministry ordered a reinvestigation into the incident following an application submitted by the CID in 2005.