Khaleda Zia’s son sentenced to life in 2004 grenade attack on Hasina

TIL Desk/World/Dhaka/ Tarique Rahman, the fugitive son of former Bangladesh premier Khaleda Zia, was sentenced to life and 19 others were given death sentence by a court here on Wednesday over the 2004 grenade attack that killed 24 people and injured 500 others, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 targeted Hasina, who was the opposition leader at that time. Hasina survived the attack with a partial hearing loss. The verdict comes ahead of the election in December. Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had boycotted the 2014 election.

Security was tightened in the capital as the accused were brought to the court. Rahman, 50, was tried in absentia with the court declaring him a “fugitive”. He now lives in London where he is believed to have sought asylum though the British authorities have declined to reveal his immigration status.

He leads the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from exile after Zia was jailed in February for five years for corruption. Judge Shahed Nuruddin of Dhaka’s fast track Tribunal pronounced the judgment ordering Rahman to be sent to prison for life along with 18 others. Former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar is among 19 people who were sentenced to death.