Aug 21 grenade attack: Tarique, Babar among 49 acquitted

The High Court (HC) has acquitted all the 49 accused including BNP acting chairperson Tarique Rahman and former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar in the August 21 grenade attack cases.

The HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain handed down the verdict on Sunday (December 1), scrapping the lower court verdict, in which total 49 persons were convicted.

On November 21, the High Court concluded its hearing on the death references and appeals of the August 21 grenade attack cases.

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.