The New Nation - Internet Edition

bdnews24.com, Dhaka

The Criminal Investigation Department will press charges by the end of this month in a case involving the 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally, a top official said yesterday.

"We have almost completed our investigation. We will be able to submit the chargesheet this month," CID chief Javed Patwari told reporters at Bangladesh Police Headquarters.

Unidentified attackers hurled several grenades at the rally outside the Awami League headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue on Aug 21, 2004, leaving at least 22 people dead and hundreds of others wounded.

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack, and AL with its allies had blamed the then ruling BNP-led four party coalition for the attack.

The process of investigations into the grisly political violence has changed course several times since the attack, but the interim government now says it has unearthed the culprits.

The name of radical Islamic group Harkatul Jihad has emerged prominently as being behind the attack, and police have repeatedly claimed that the group's chief Mufti Hannan had admitted that his people conducted the attack.

Inspector general of police Nur Mohammad, who also talked to reporters during Wednesday's briefing, said: "We will take measures against the police officers who had earlier neglected the investigation."