PM’s remark won’t influence Aug 21 trial: Law minister

Law Minister Anisul Huq today ruled out BNP’s allegation that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s comment involving party chairperson Khaleda Zia and her son with August 21, 2004 grenade attack will influence the ongoing trial.

The PM’s made the comment following the inaction of the then BNP-led government over the grenade attack, the minister said while replying to the queries from reporters after a meeting at the capital’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel.

“The government played an inactive role when 22 people were killed in the attack and this is ambiguous indeed,” the minister said.

The incident however was not any regular event, it was surely a conspiracy, he added.

The law minister’s remarks came a day after President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Khandker Mahbub Hossain claimed that Sheikh Hasina's allegations that the BNP chief and her elder son were involved in the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in 2004 will influence the trial.

At a public meeting on the 10th anniversary of the grenade attack on the AL rally on Bangabandhu Avenue, the prime minister on Thursday said BNP founder Ziaur Rahman was behind the Bangabandhu murder on August 15, 1975, and his family was involved in the August 21 grenade attack.

She accused the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, her son, her cabinet members and Jamaat leaders of the gruesome attack.

The August 21 attack killed 24 AL leaders and activists and injured over 300 people. Then opposition leader Hasina narrowly escaped the assassination attempt.