DHAKA: Bangladesh pro­­secutors on Monday dema­n­ded the death sentence for the son of opposition leader Khaleda Zia for his alleged role in a deadly 2004 grenade attack in which current prime minister Sheikh Hasina was injured.

More than 20 people were killed in the assault on a rally led by Hasina when she was in opposition and Zia was in power.

Zia’s son Tarique Rahman, who lives in exile in London, says the criminal conspiracy case against him is part of a political witch-hunt. Zia and Hasina have been arch-rivals for three decades, during which they have alternated in power.

With the marathon trial nearing a close, prosecutors on Monday sought death sentences for Rahman and 48 others, including the then-home minister and the chiefs of major intelligence agencies.

Chief prosecutor Syed Re­­zaur Rahman said that meetings to plan the attack were held at Tarique Rahm­an’s office in Bangladesh Natio­n­a­­­list Party headquarters. “He assured all sorts of ad­­mini­strative and monetary help to the killers.” The prosecutor, summarising his speech to the court, said a brother of a minister in Zia’s administration who fled to Pakistan had distributed the grenades to the killers.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018