Criminals stab August 21 attack survivor

Unidentified criminals stabbed a survivor of the August 21 grenade attack near his home in the capital's Jatrabari early yesterday.

Badar Aziz Uddin, 53, a local Awami League activist and also a complainant of August 21 grenade attack case, is undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital with multiple stab wounds in his chest, back and left leg.

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His daughter Sanjida Aziz told The Daily Star that around 3:40am, her father left home for Chandpur's Haimchar upazila to attend a programme commemorating the attack on an AL rally.

Badar was supposed to go there in a private car. He was going to Haimchar in the early hours to avoid traffic jam, she said, adding that three to four youths attacked her father soon after he came out of home.

Badar told this correspondent that he suspected that he was attacked as he filed a case over the grenade attack.

Badar's wife Jannatul Nahar filed a case against four unknown people with Jatrabari Police Station in connection with yesterday's incident, said Iftekhairul Islam, assistant commissioner of Demra zone.

"Primarily, we are suspecting that it is a case of mugging, but also giving priority to other issues as the victim is a survivor and complainant of a grenade attack case,” he added.

 Badar was hit by grenade splinters in the August 21 grisly attack, said his family.

The attack was carried out on an AL rally in the capital on August 21 in 2004, killing 24 people and injuring 300 more. Sheikh Hasina, who was then the opposition  leader, narrowly escaped an               assassination.

On June 5, 2007, Badar of Cox's Bazar filed a case against Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman, former Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and 25 others with a Dhaka court in connection with the grenade attack.  

The court later ordered police to investigate the case together with the main case of the incident lodged with Motijheel Police Station on August 22, 2004.