By IANS
Dhaka : Experts have found three bullet marks on a car in which former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina was whisked away from an August 2004 political rally at which Islamist militants lobbed grenades, leaving 27 dead and hundreds injured.
This ends doubts and speculations whether Hasina was the prime target of the Aug 21, 2004, assault, and also gives a new dimension to the case as arrested militants of Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (HUJI) had confessed to using only grenades in the attack.
The bullet-proof Mercedez sports utility vehicle (SUV) in which Hasina escaped was not examined immediately after the incident.
The help of Interpol was sought in the probe that was stalled during the regime of Hasina’s political rival Khaleda Zia.
The probe has resumed under the present emergency government and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) seized the vehicle Nov 10 as an evidence of the 2004 grenade attack case.
A three-member team, comprising members from the Special Branch of Police (SB) and CID, has already prepared a report in which it mentioned that 10 marks were found on five windows of the Mercedes.
Of those, three marks were of bullets, the Daily Star newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting unnamed official sources.
The team is expected to submit its 19-page report to the authorities soon.
The newspaper said that the findings had given “a new dimension” to the investigation of the gruesome attack, as six Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (HUJI) men, including its operations commander Mufti Abdul Hannan, in their confessional statements admitted to using only grenades in the attack.
Now, the CID, which is investigating the case, is trying to ascertain who fired the shots on the SUV apparently to kill Hasina.
Hasina and other leaders her Awami League party who were present at the rally – many of them injured – had been claiming that shots were fired on the bullet-proof-vehicle to kill her when she was trying to escape the scene in it.
The Zia government denied this.
The Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association in its enquiry report on the incident also mentioned that criminals fired gunshots at the SUV and hurled grenades, which hit its windscreen and windows on the left, as it was leaving the spot.
But, as the glass was bullet-proof, the leader was saved. Almost all the witnesses emphatically stated that the grenade attack on the meeting and firing on her vehicle were aimed to kill Hasina in a planned way, the Bar report had said.