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Bangladeshi militant confesses 'exporting' grenades to India
By Indo Asian News Service,
Nov 23, 2006 - 6:52:51 PM
Dhaka, Nov 23 (IANS) An Islamist militant leader confessed in a Bangladesh court that he had 'exported' 32 grenades to Kolkata and had planted bombs to kill former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and the current British envoy here.
The startling confession by Mufti Abdul Hannan of banned Harkatul Jihad (HUJI) was the result of extensive interrogation, said The Daily Star newspaper Thursday.
Hannan confessed to have planted a 76 kg bomb at Kotalipara in Gopalganj district, close to the venue of a rally Sheikh Hasina, then the country's prime minister, was to address on July 20, 2000.
Media has reported three subsequent attempts on Hasina's life after she became the opposition leader in October 2001.
Hasina is now spearheading a stir by a 14-party alliance led by the Awami League demanding the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz as Bangladesh prepares for parliamentary polls in January.
The newspaper report had only a single-line reference to grenades being smuggled to Kolkata.
Media reports in Bangladesh as also in western countries have pointed to the ascendance of Islamist militancy in the 1990s, particularly in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
New Delhi has officially taken this up with Dhaka only to be told, in a persistent attempt at getting even, that there are groups of Bangladeshi criminals taking shelter in India.
Hannan confessed to have established the HUJI in 1989-90, whose leader Abdur Rahman Faruqui was killed fighting against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
The grenade attack on British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Anwar Choudhury, took place in Sylhet in northeastern Bangladesh on May 21, 2004.
A diplomat of Bangladeshi origin, Choudhury survived serious injuries. He remains in the post, currently involved in facilitating the end to the political stalemate over revamping of the Election Commission.
Hannan also admitted to plotting and leading several gruesome grenade attacks elsewhere including at a cultural fair 'Udichi' in Jessore on March 6, 1999 because it was 'anti-Islamist'.
A rally by a minority Hindu Awami League lawmaker, Suranjit Sengupta, was also attacked in Sunamganj, his home base, on July 21, 2001, the newspaper said.
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