Aug 21 grenade attack:  Verdict on death references, appeals any day

The High Court has concluded its hearing on the death references and appeals of the August 21 grenade attack cases. Now, the higher court is set to deliver its verdict any day.

On Thursday (November 21), the HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain kept the death references and the appeals as curia advisari vult (meaning the verdict will be delivered any day), after it concluded hearing on those matters.
Advocate Shishir Monir was present on behalf of the convicted accused.

The cases were filed following a grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka that claimed 24 lives and left about 300 injured. Then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack on August 21, 2004.

A Dhaka court on October 10, 2018, sentenced 19 people, including former BNP state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar to death in the two cases filed in connection with the grenade attacks.

Nineteen others including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman were given life imprisonment and 11 people were handed different terms in prison.