DHAKA, 3 November 2007 — The leader of a banned Bangladeshi militant group told a court that his men carried out a grenade attack at a rally in 2004 to kill former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed, police said yesterday.
The assault in the capital Dhaka left at least 20 people dead and hundreds injured but Hasina, who was leader of the opposition at the time, survived with permanent damage to one ear.
Mufti Abdul Hannan, the leader of Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami, and two of his associates Mohibullah and Sharif Shahidul Alam, told a court on Thursday night that the group was behind the attack, a senior police officer told AFP.
The militants said they had smuggled in the grenades, used in the attack, from Afghanistan. They said they had planned the attack in a house in Dhaka days before the blasts.
The accused said they wanted to kill the former premier because her government had banned issuance of fatwa (religious edict) and took action against leaders and workers of Islamist organizations.
“Their confessional statements were recorded at the additional chief metropolitan magistrate court,” the police officer said. “Mufti Hannan was the mastermind of the operation while his group members carried out the grenade attack,” the officer said.
