Grenades termed Hasina's breakfast

A prosecution witness yesterday said a leader of the banned militant organisation Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji) had described the grenades hurled at an Awami League rally in 2004 as "breakfast for Sheikh Hasina".
Mohammad Mosaddek Billah, principal of a Gazipur-based madrasa and 74th prosecution witness in the August 21 grenade attack cases, said this while making his statement before the Speedy Trial tribunal-1 of Dhaka.
Billah told the court he had met one Moulana Liton in mid-February in 2004 while going to Bormi from Dhaka and got his East Merul Badda address.
"After 10 days I went to Liton's house, where he introduced me to Mufti Hannan, Abu Zandal, Ahsan Ullah Kajol, Muttakin, Mursalin and several other unknown people. I stayed there that day and was offered a business at one stage.
"On June 1, 2004, I resigned as the principal of Majhirchar Madrasa and started running a grocery at Merul Badda. In the meantime, Mufti Hannan and his associates changed that address and rented another house in West Merul Badda," he said.
"I went to their house during my business hours around 12:00noon on August 21, 2004 and saw Mufti Hannan, Liton, Kajol, Muttakin, Mursalin and Zandal.
"I also found them taking out some round-shaped things from bags. I enquired about those things. One of them told me that those things were Hasina's breakfast.
"In the evening that day, I learned from people and the media that a grenade attack had been carried out on Bangabandhu Avenue and I finally realised what Hasina's breakfast really meant," Billah added.
The witness also said he had given a judicial statement before a Dhaka magistrate on November 29, 2007.
Billah yesterday identified Zandal in the dock but could not say which man had told him about Hasina's breakfast.
After recording his statement, Judge Shahed Nuruddin fixed March 18 for cross-examination of the witness by the defence.    
BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman and 19 others have been absconding, while 24 others, including BNP leaders Lutfozzaman Babar, Abdus Salam Pintu and Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed, are now behind bars in connection with the grenade attack cases.                       
Eight others, among them BNP leader Ariful Islam Arif and Saiful Islam Duke, nephew of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, are also out on bail.
The grenade attack left 24 leaders and workers of the Awami League dead, including late president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman. As many as 300 others were injured in the attack.
AL chief Sheikh Hasina, leader of the opposition at the time and now prime minister, narrowly escaped death but sustained injuries in her ear caused by the impact of the blasts.