Prime Minister's ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy has said before the grenade attack on August 21 in 2004, BNP leader Tarique Rahman had a meeting with planners and enforcers of the blast at Hawa Bhaban.
On August 14, 2004, Tarique Rahman had a meeting with then BNP government's state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, and Harkat-ul-Jihad leaders Mufti Hannan and Maulana Tajuddin at Hawa Bhaban, Joy wrote in his verified Facebook account Tuesday.
Noor Chowdhury, self-confessed and convicted killer of Bangabandhu, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, former secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, Abul Harris Chowdhury, political secretary of then prime minister Khaleda Zia, Abdus Salam Pintu, deputy minister of the BNP-Jamaat government, also joined the meeting, he added.
Read: Joy now a voice of youth in Bangladesh's policy reform circles: CRI
On August 16, the second meeting was held at the residence of Babar in the capital's Minto Road where the entire plan was chalked out and the decision was finalised, Joy wrote.
On August 21, Harkat-ul-Jihad blasted grenades at an antiterrorism rally headed by then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina in front of Awami League's central office at Bangabandhu Avenue, he continued.
The grenade blasts killed 26 leaders and activists of the Awami League.
Later, Tarique and Duke, with the aid of state agencies, sent the mastermind of the attack, Tajuddin, to Pakistan, Joy said.