Bangladesh high court acquits ex-PM Khaleda Zia’s son in Dhaka grenade attacks case

Bangladesh High Court has acquitted all the accused including the Acting Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Tareq Rahman in the August 21 grenade attacks case on former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, lawyers said on Sunday.

The court also scrapped the lower court verdict, in which a total of 49 persons were convicted. Among them, the lower court sentenced 19 people including former State Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar to death and acquitted all the accused.

The High Court observed that the trial court verdict in the cases is illegal as it was delivered in an illegal manner. The Dhaka grenade attack took place at an anti-terrorism rally organised by Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, this year.

The attack left 24 dead and more than 500 injured. The attack was carried out at 5:22 pm after Sheikh Hasina, the then-leader of opposition had finished addressing a crowd of 20,000 people from the back of a truck. Hasina also sustained some injuries in the attack.

Meanwhile, on November 30, ISKCON Kolkata claimed that Bangladesh authorities have arrested two of its monks, Adipurush Shyam Das and Ranganath Das Brahmachari, and its secretary of Chinmoy Krishna Das.

Vice President of ISKCON Kolkata Radha Raman said that the monks were arrested on Friday by the police while on their way home after meeting secretary of Chinmoy Krishna Das, who was arrested on the charges of sedition on November 25.