Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west.
leader Mufti Abdul Hannan in his 2011 confessional statement named some intelligence and political bigwigs, including
Khaleda Zia'sThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
son Tarique Rahman
...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is
Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office...
, as criminal masterminds of the August 21 grenade assault launched to assassinate Sheikh Hasina.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...AHM Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan, the then additional chief metropolitan magistrate who had recorded the statement, told a Dhaka court about its content yesterday.
Hannan, chief of banned hard boy outfit Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), was in the dock while Habibur, now an additional Dhaka judge, was giving his testimony on recording the confessional statement.
The Daily Star has obtained a copy of Hannan's statement.
The HuJI leader had also narrated some conspiratorial meetings to assassinate Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader.
He was present at the meeting along with some influential leaders and ministers of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
, HuJI leaders and top intelligence officials.
Tarique, then senior joint secretary general of BNP, assigned two party leaders -- state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu -- to provide all out assistance to the HuJI men to carry out the attack.
Tarique, elder son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is now the party's senior vice chairman.
"Before the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, I along with several other HuJI leaders went to Hawa Bhaban," Hannan said in the statement.
Hawa Bhaban was the political office of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
There, the hard boy leader said, he found Tarique, Abul Harris Chowdhury, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, Abdus Salam Pintu, BNP politician Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad and Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed.
Brigadier General Abdur Rahim, then director general of National Security Intelligence (NSI), and Brigadier General Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, then director general of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), were also present.
"I informed them about the plan of grenade attack on Awami League rally, which was to be addressed by Sheikh Hasina, and sought their assistance."
Tarique then assured them of full support and told them to communicate with Babar and Pintu for administrative assistance, the statement read.
Hannan began his statement saying that AL was defeated in 2001 general election and BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami formed the government.
His organization tried to strengthen its relation with BNP. HuJI ameer Moulana Abdus Salam, Sheikh Farid, Moulana Yahiya, Abu Bakar and Jahangir Badar contacted BNP politicians Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Kaikobad.
The two leaders arranged High Court bails for 41 HuJI men tossed in the clink
Please don't kill me!
in Dhankhali in 1996.
Hannan said the HuJI's communication with the BNP leaders continued and the outfit kept receiving assistance from them.
Towards the end of 2003, Abdus Salam Farid, Moulana Tajuddin, brother of BVNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu, met Babar at his government residence on Bailey Road in the capital. There GK Gaus, Ariful Islam, former DCC ward councillor; Yahiya and Abu Bakar, were also present there.
Babar told Gaus and Arif about the task of Sylhet and ordered them to do the work locally. In Sylhet, local BNP men and HuJI men went
kaboom!grenades.
At the court yesterday, Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan said around 3:00pm on April 7 of 2011 jail police produced Mufti Hannan at his chamber for recording confessional statement.
Hannan was given three hours to make up his mind.
Judge Shahed Nuruddin of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 recorded Habibur's statement for half an hour yesterday.
Later, barrister Fakhrul Islam, a counsel for Mufti Hannan, cross-examined him.
The defence will again cross-examine Habibur today as the court adjourned the trial proceedings for yesterday.
Syed Rezaur Rahman, chief counsel for the August 21 grenade attack cases, stood for the state.
The August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally killed Ivy Rahman, wife of President Zillur Rahman, along with 23 others and maimed over 300 people.
Sheikh Hasina, now prime minister, narrowly escaped death and suffered ear injuries.