By IANS,
Dhaka : A Dhaka court has issued arrest warrants against eight absconding members of the proscribed militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) for the grenade attack on a rally of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2004.
The eight include Maulana Tajuddin, a high profile militant reportedly hiding in West Bengal in India at one time, who is brother of a former minister in former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s government, Abdus Salam Pintu.
Pintu, and their brother Maulana Liton, already detained, have been named in an earlier charge sheet in this case.
Twenty-seven people, including top Awami League leaders, died Aug 21, 2004 when militants lobbed grenades on their rally.
Hasina had a narrow escape when militants fired from a nearby mosque. She was whisked away in a bullet-proof car. She still nurses a damaged ear after the attack.
Metropolitan Sessions Court Judge Mohammad Azizuz Haque accepted the charge sheet filed after investigations that, according to media reports, had slowed down when Zia was in office till October 2006.
The court directed the authorities concerned to send copies of the arrest warrants to the addresses of the absconding accused, The Daily Star reported Tuesday.