Joj Miah 'confession'
BNP sticks to fake guns
Joj Miah, who has been proven not guilty in the August 21 grenade attack in 2004, is again being portrayed as the real culprit by BNP to rule out the latest findings of Tarique Rahman and other BNP leaders' involvement in the attack.
Some seven weeks after the Criminal Investigation Department submitted a supplementary charge sheet accusing BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's elder son Tarique and 29 others, BNP has once again claimed Joj Miah is the real culprit.
"The then state minister for home, the prime minister's son and other BNP leaders stand accused in the case. And to protect them, BNP is now accusing me," Joj Miah told The Daily Star yesterday over the phone.
"By pinning the blame on me, they had tried to save them back then [during the rule of BNP-Jamaat alliance]. I am thankful to Allah that I am safe now. The truth revealed itself in the investigation," he added.
During the BNP-Jamaat alliance rule in 2005, Joj Miah, a petty criminal, was implicated in the August 21 grenade attack cases. The then CID obtained a confessional statement from him where he described the plot behind the attack including his involvement in it.
In that statement, Joj alleged that underworld gang Seven-Star Group led by Subrata Bain Shuvro, one of the most wanted criminals, carried out the attack.
The investigators also implicated ward-level AL leader and former ward commissioner Mokhlesur Rahman, claiming that Joj had identified Mokhlesur as one of the plotters.
The August 21 blasts, carried out in attempts to assassinate Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and other top leaders, killed 24 people including Ivy Rahman, wife of now President Zillur Rahman. Hasina and other AL top brass narrowly escaped death.
Based on Joj Miah's confessional statement, the then BNP-Jamaat administration was about to conclude the investigation.
However, Joj's weak statement drew strong media scrutiny, and it was proven to be false and fabricated.
At one point, Joj's sister revealed to the media that CID had been paying the family Tk 2,500 per month as allowance since her brother's arrest.
Contacted, current investigation officer of the case, CID's special superintendent of police Abdul Kahar Akand declined to talk about BNP's latest claim regarding Joj Miah.
"I'd only say Joj Miah's story was nothing but a staged drama," said Akand, who submitted the latest supplementary charge sheet in July.
The supplementary charge sheet mentioned that confessional statements of Joj Miah and two others "have been proven to be fabricated and a lie".
Three former CID officials are now facing criminal charges for their role in obtaining false confessional statements and diverting the case to wrong direction hiding the real culprits. They are now in jail as accused in the August 21 grenade attack cases.
Meanwhile, BNP leaders on the seventh anniversary of the attack on Sunday said the CID during their tenure had rightly implicated Joj Miah in the cases.
"The supplementary charge sheets are politically motivated," said BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press briefing at the party's central office on Sunday.
In response to the BNP claim, Joj Miah said, "The truth has now surfaced in the investigation. CID had forcefully obtained the confessional statement from me during my detention."
"Back then, I couldn't say anything to anyone. Even the magistrate who took my statement was their man," he told The Daily Star.
The latest supplementary charge sheet says that Tarique Rahman gave Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) leaders the go-ahead to stage the grenade blasts a few days before the attack.
The attack was the outcome of collaboration between Huji, influential leaders of BNP and Jamaat, and some officials of the home ministry, police, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, National Security Intelligence and Prime Minister's Office, it said.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=199871
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