Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police on Friday started quizzing former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar in the August 21 grenade attack case. He was taken to the CID office from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur this morning. A Dhaka court on Thursday directed the investigation officer of the August 21 grenade attack case to take Lutfozzaman Babar on a five-day remand. First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ehsanul Haque passed the order vacating his earlier stay order on remand.

The court came up with the order after receiving a Supreme Court order. The SC stayed a HC order, which directed the authorities concerned to interrogate Babar at the jail gate, for seven days. Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Muzammel Hossain passed the order after hearing a government petition moved by Attorney General Mahbubey Alam.

The judge asked the government to file a regular leave-to-appeal petition with the SC against the HC order within seven days. The attorney general yesterday told The Daily Star that after receiving the SC order, there was no bar to sending Babar on remand. Upon a petition by Babar, the High Court on Wednesday directed the authorities for interrogation at the jail gate in the August 21 grenade attack case, if necessary.

On the same day, the trial court in Dhaka stayed till November 1 an order it had passed earlier in the day placing Babar on a five-day remand. On October 26, Babar was shown arrested in the August 21 grenade attack case. Twenty-three people including Awami League leader Ivy Rahman were killed and 300 others injured in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.

-Daily Star