Sheikh Hasina and the top brass of the Awami League refused to give depositions to the Judicial Inquiry Commission formed to probe the 21 August 2004 grenade attack on an AL rally in Dhaka, according to the commission's chairman.
The attack left 24 people dead and scores injured.
Without the depositions, the commission's investigation was delayed.
The report by the one-member commission – formed on 22 August 2024 by the BNP government and led by Justice Joynul Abedin – chronicled the refusals.
In the report, Abedin wrote: "The Commission wholeheartedly tried to record the depositions, but all its efforts proved futile in the face of consistent refusal by the top Awami League and central leaders of the opposition."
He said a letter was sent seven days after the attack to Hasina, the leader of the opposition at the time, at her residence to request cooperation in gathering her personal experience and inspecting her car, which was also attacked on 21 August.
"But the Commission official failed to hand over the letter due to non-cooperation from the leadership," he wrote.
The next letter was sent on 2 September the same year, reiterating the request for cooperation, but this also went unanswered, he claimed.
Joynul then recounted making several phone calls, requesting the party secretary for an audience.
When the then general secretary of AL, MA Jalil, was personally requested for an audience with Hasina, he assured that it would be arranged.
"Eventually, after about three days, Jalil informed one of the secretaries to the Commission over telephone that the above request of the chairman of the Commission could not be conceded, but the Commission was free to inspect the car."
Despite this, Abedin claimed he sent another letter to Hasina's "Sudha Sadan" residence, but "this attempt was also frustrated due to non-cooperative and hostile attitude of her residence staff".
Similar letters were also sent to other AL leaders and personal security staff, but these also went unanswered, the report prepared by Abedin said.
A leaked US cable from 15 September 2004, available on Wikileaks, describes a meeting between then deputy assistant secretary of State Torkel Patterson and then foreign secretary Shamsher M Chowdhury two days earlier where the issue was also brought up.
At the meeting, "DAS Patterson stressed that a
government must protect its citizens and their right to speak in opposition to the government, urging the setting aside of political differences and focusing on solving this crime".
Shamsher was said to have deflected the call for action. "While he agreed with the need for action he blamed the Awami League for any inaction citing Sheikh Hasina's refusal to see Prime Minister Zia as evidence of their lack of cooperation in the investigation."
He also rejected the notion that the BNP was behind the attack.
"No government is foolish enough to inflict this [attack] on itself."
The cable concluded that the Bangladesh government was "getting inventive in explaining why they are not able to conduct a police investigation into the attacks of August 21".
It said the government blamed the AL, "intelligence failure" and even Indians, but was "unable to produce evidence behind these".
Then prime minister and BNP chief Khaleda Zia had also reached out to Hasina soon after the attack.
According to reports from the time, Zia sought cooperation from Hasina "in resisting subversive activities" in a letter she sent after dropping her plan to visit her political arch-rival amid protests by opposition activists.
Khaleda's emissaries reached near Sudha Sadan at 10:50pm, but could not hand over the letter because of strong protests by Chhatra League activists.
Earlier, Khaleda scrapped her visit to Sudha Sadan on intelligence of the agents posted in front of Hasina's Dhanmondi residence.
Top leaders of the AL derided Khaleda's probable visit as "a mockery and an attempt to distract people's attention".
Stalled progress
In another leaked cable from September 2004, recounting a dinner between then US Ambassador Harry K Thomas and Lieutenant General (retd) Noorudin Khan, former chief of army staff and Awami League cabinet minister, Hasina's stance was also discussed.
"He accused Hasina of losing her cards after the 21 August attack on the Awami League. Instead of calling for an independent investigation and taking the moral high ground, she insisted on repeated strikes and attempted to bring the government down," the cable reads.
This, he reasoned, was behind Hasina losing popular support with an unintended consequence of it being that the government no longer "felt compelled to solve the crime".
The AL and Hasina, meanwhile, believed that BNP was behind the attack and justice would not be ensured with the party in power.
A year after the attack, as Hasina's demands for justice grew louder, the BNP-led government seemed to be scrambling for answers.
By this time, Jamaat-e-Islam, which had also been suspected by the AL, denied all such accusations.
Speculation continued, but nothing concrete had been presented before the public.
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