Monday, December 7, 2009
Kashmiri militant Butt admits to Aug 21 role
Disclosing that he was present at the scene of the attack that killed 24 people and injured 300 others, the Hijbul Mujahideen leader also admitted to his close involvement in the planning and preparation of it, court sources said.
Yusuf gave the confessional statement before Metropolitan Magistrate AKM Emdadul Huq after being in remand for 14 days in four phases in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
The magistrate took about five hours to record the statement and then sent him back to jail.
Yusuf said he also worked with banned Islamic outfits Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) and Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
On December 3, Huji founder Moulana Sheikh Abdus Salam also the chief of Islamic Democratic Party confessed to his own involvement in the August 21, 2004 carnage.
According to the sources, in the confessional statement, Yusuf also admitted that he was involved in association with LeT Bangladesh leader Moulana Tajuddin who is a brother of former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, in the process of getting the grenades to the throwers.
Yusuf entered Bangladesh several years ago with the help of Tajuddin and since then he was involved in Islamist militant activities in the country supplying explosives, firearms and ammunition in cooperation with detained current chief of Huji Mufti Abdul Hannan and his other associates, according to the statement.
He also admitted that he was assigned by his bosses to continue militant activities in Bangladesh and India administered Kashmir, and to traffic Islamist militants from Pakistan administered Kashmir to India administered Kashmir through Bangladesh.
He also disclosed the names of several leaders of different political parties who are allegedly linked to Islamist militancy in the country, and also the names of some other Huji and LeT militants still active here.
Uttara police arrested Yusuf on January 6 this year in connection with an arms case although they knew him as Abdul Majid back then.
More than 11 months into his arrest, he was identified as Abu Yusuf during an interrogation of Huji founder Abdus Salam.
Yusuf Butt hails from Terigaon village under Kulgaon police station of Islamabad district in India administered Kashmir, and he traveled to Pakistan and India several times from Bangladesh.
During the last BNP-Jamaat-led regime, the then CID investigating officer of the case allegedly tried to mislead the investigation in a bid to save the real perpetrators from arrest and prosecution. So he reportedly found a fall guy named Joj Miah, and extracted a forced confession from him and two others.
During the immediate past caretaker government, CID started reinvestigating the case and its Assistant Superintendent (ASP) Fazlul Kabir submitted a charge sheet accusing 22 people.
But a court then ordered the CID to carry out a deeper investigation to find out the sources of the grenades and other information about the attack.
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