Grenade Attack on UK Envoy
HuJi boss Hannan, 3 militants charged
Staff Correspondent, Sylhet
A Sylhet court yesterday framed charges against Mufti Abdul Hannan, chief of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji), and three others for the grenade attack on British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet in 2004.Additional District and Sessions Judge Ferdous Ahmed framed the charges at about 10:30am in presence of the accused. The other accused in the case are Mufti Hannan's brother Mofizur Rahman and Huji operatives Delwar Hossain Ripon and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul. The judge also fixed August 14 for starting deposition of the prosecution witnesses. The number of prosecution witnesses is 56, court sources said. Coming out of the court Mufti Hannan went on shouting. "I am totally innocent, I am falsely implicated in the case. I know nothing about it," he told the reporters. "You all know well what Sheikh Hasina had done, she had staged a drama. She implicated me in the bomb case during her regime," the Huji chief added. Another accused Shahedul also said that he had been falsely implicated in the case. "I was also not given the time to hire a lawyer to defend me," he added. On July 29, District and Sessions Judge of Sylhet Abdul Gafur ordered sending the two cases (one under arms and explosives act and the other for killing) to the Additional District and Sessions Judge, also the court for dealing with cases under arms and explosives acts. The judge also deputed a lawyer as defence counsel following Mufti Hannan's appeal for providing legal assistance. On July 12, the district judge acquitted 20 of the case, as their names were dropped from the charge sheet. The Sylhet Sadar magistrate on June 26 sent the case records and charge sheets in connection with the grenade attack to the District and Sessions Judge's court for trial. Senior ASP of CID Munshi Atiqur Rahman earlier submitted charge sheets against the four to the court. Three people were killed and the Bangladesh-born British high commissioner and 70 others were injured in the grenade attack after the Juma prayers on 21 May in 2004 on the premises of the shrine of Hajrat Shahjalal (RA). The Sylhet Kotwali police filed a case on the same day and arrested nine leaders of Awami League (AL) students' wing-Bangladesh Chhatra League for their suspected involvement in the attack. However, their involvement could not be established. Officials from the Scotland Yard, UK also visited the spot in Sylhet. The cases, lodged with the Sylhet Kotwali Police Station, were transferred to the CID later.
| 
