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DHAKA, Dec 01, 2024 (BSS)- Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Standing Committee Member Mirza Abbas has said BNP was never involved in August 21 grenade attack, but the incident had a foreign link.

“A foreign power wanted to produce false evidence against Begum Khaleda and BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman. They not only wanted to frame them in false case but also sentenced Tarique Rahman on the basis of a fabricated story,” he said.

“Many people were also sentenced in the cases…but today a High Court verdict quashed it acquitting Tarique Rahman and all others,” he told a discussion at the Jatiya Press Club here today. 

Mirza Abbas termed the HC verdict as a ‘Good News’ in the month of victory.

“We didn’t get justice in the past. I received the first good news today on the first day of December. Insha Allah, we are expecting more good news in future,” he hoped.

The BNP leader also hoped that justice would be ensured in the lakhs of cases lodged against BNP leaders and activists during the Awami League regime.

The High Court (HC) today acquitted all persons who were convicted by the lower court in two cases- one on murder and other on explosives substances- filed over the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital's Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.

A High Court division bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain gave the verdict, scrapping the lower court judgment in the two cases.

Referring to the oppression and torture on Tarique Rahman after 1/11 changeover, the BNP leader said, he was severely ill for a long time. He was arrested and tortured a lot. 

“Now he is now staying abroad and he will return home very soon,” Mirza Abbas said.

Bangladesh Swadhinata Forum, a pro-BNP platform, organized the discussion on “Independence, Democracy and Voting Rights in the Current Context”.

BNP Vice-Chairmen Barkat Ullah Bulu and Nurul Islam Moni, Joint Secretary General Abdus Salam Azad and Bangladesh Jatiya Dal (BJD) leader Syed Ehsanul Huda also spoke, on the occasion.