By DPA
Dhaka : Former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman were sued in a criminal court Tuesday for masterminding a brutal grenade attack on an open air opposition rally that left over 20 people dead nearly three years ago, officials said.
Justice ministry officials said 26 other co-accused in the case filed by a private citizen, Bakr Aizazuddin, included three leaders of the fundamentalist Jamaat-I-Islami which had been a partner in the outgoing coalition led by Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Police suspect the attack was designed to kill opposition Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina who was addressing the rally from a truck when the multiple blasts occurred.
Within minutes of the explosions the venue of the rally in central Dhaka was littered with bloody parts of human bodies.
Hasina escaped the assassination attempt, but one of her bodyguards was killed in Bangladesh's worst political carnage in recent years.
Hasina blamed the foiled bid on her life on Aug 21, 2004 on the then ruling Nationalist-Islamist coalition.
Filing cases against the accused was not allowed during Zia's regime.
The present caretaker government took up the case and ordered a fresh probe into the political violence, which claimed the lives of a dozen Awami League activists.