The death references on August 21 grenade attack cases yesterday reached the High Court for examination of the trial court's verdict that sentenced 19 persons including former state minister and BNP leader Lutfozzaman Babar to death, while 19 others including BNP's acting chairman Tarique Rahman got life imprisonment.

The government has no intention to curb freedom of expression which lays foundation of its democratic governance, Law Minister Anisul Huq briefs diplomats.

It was the cabinet's oath-taking night after the 2001 parliamentary elections. The phone rang in the newsroom of The Daily Star. On the other end of the phone was the quivering voice of a man who, in his Dhaka University student days, was an infamous “armed cadre” of a political party.

A court observation in the August 21 grenade attack case verdicts highlights the expertise of the attackers.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday said it will not be difficult for the government to bring Tarique Rahman, BNP's senior vice chairman who is a convict in the August 21 grenade attack cases, back to the country.

BNP alleges that 'state-sponsored' verdicts were given in the August 21 grenade attack cases, aiming to destroy BNP in a planned way.

The grenades used in the August 21 attack to kill Sheikh Hasina were supplied by former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu's brother Maulana Tajuddin.

Death Penalty in each of two Cases

August 21, 2004...

The day before August 21, 2004, Dhaka city Awami League leaders had an informal meeting with party chief Sheikh Hasina for her directives on the next day's rally on Bangabandhu Avenue.

The ruling Awami League yesterday said it was neither unhappy nor fully satisfied with the verdicts in the grenade attack cases and that it would request the government to seek a stricter punishment for BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman.

Eighteen of the 49 convicts in the August 21 grenade attack cases are still at large and police have been able to know the whereabouts of eight of them.

The morning rush hour traffic, which generally seems to stretch endlessly, suddenly disappeared at Chankharpul intersection yesterday.

Survivors and family members of the victims of the August 21 grenade attack said they were saddened that the court fell short of giving capital punishment to Tarique Rahman, who was convicted of conspiring and planning the carnage.

Rivalry between the ruling and the opposition parties is inevitable in politics, but it is utterly unacceptable that attempts will be made to make the opposition leaderless, a special court observed in its verdict in the August 21 grenade attack cases yesterday.

He was hardly known to outsiders until his father, General Ziaur Rahman who became Bangladesh's president in the process of several coups and counter-coups, died in another military putsch in May 1981. Through a Bangladesh Television programme, the countrymen, eventually came to know of Tarique Rahman. And today, he is facing life term as the court verdict goes. From the crux of political power he now lives the life of a fugitive.

It was a well-orchestrated plan, executed through abuse of state power, a special court has ruled, delivering verdicts in the two cases filed over the grenade attack on an Awami League rally 14 years ago.

The BNP yesterday rejected the verdicts in the August 21 grenade attack cases alleging that those were delivered at the “behest of the government with a political motive”.

Joj Mia, the man who falsely-implicated in the August 21 grenade attack incident, says he is not fully satisfied over the verdict as the mastermind of the attack BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman was not awarded death penalty.

Whichever party may be in the state power in a democratic country must strive to consolidate democracy by adopting a liberal policy towards the political opposition, observes a special tribunal.