BNP on Wednesday turned down the verdicts in the August 21 grenade attack cases, saying it has been given at the ‘behest of the government’ with a political motive.
“BNP thinks that the verdict is a politically motivated one. It’s a naked manifestation of satisfying the government’s political vengeance,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Speaking at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, he further said, “We reject the dictated verdict.”
Fakhrul also said the government has set another bad example of taking political revenge using the court as they did it by convicting BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a ‘false’ case in the past.
He alleged that though their party Senior Vice-chairman Tarique Rahman had no involvement in the grenade attack incident, he was given life imprisonment in the cases. “It has proved that no citizen of the country has now the scope of getting justice.”
Under the circumstances, Fakhrul called on the country’s people to become alert about the government’s ‘vindictive attitude and its foul strategy of using court’. “We also urge people to get united to wage a movement to establish a pro-people government by ousting the current unelected one.”
He said they will carry out different political programmes against the verdict alongside taking legal measures.
BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed said the prosecution could not present any straightforward document and witness before the court to prove Tarique Rahman’s involvement in the incident. “Despite this, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for making political gains.”
BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi were, among others, present.
Earlier in the morning, after a long wait for over 14 years, a speedy trial tribunal sentenced 19 people to death and 19 others, including BNP acting Chairman Tarique Rahman to life imprisonment, in two cases filed over the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital in 2004.
source: UNB
