Eighty-four cases. Every single one gone. The grenade attack? Acquitted. The arms haul? Acquitted. The orphanage theft? Acquitted. The money laundering? Acquitted. When the accused become the government, justice doesn’t stand a chance.
There is a number you need to understand before you read any further.
Eighty-four.
That is how many cases were filed against Tarique Rahman between 2007 and 2024. Corruption. Money laundering. Grenade attack conspiracy. Arms trafficking facilitation. Extortion. Murder. You name the charge, it was filed. Eighty-four separate legal proceedings against one man — the son of a former Prime Minister, the senior vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the person US diplomatic cables described as a “symbol of kleptocratic government” and the “Dark Prince” of Bangladeshi politics.
And now?
Zero.
Zero convictions. Zero active cases. Zero pending charges. Every single one of those eighty-four cases has been acquitted, discharged, withdrawn, or quietly buried. The man who was convicted in absentia for orchestrating a grenade attack that killed 24 people is now the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The man found guilty of laundering $2.5 million through Singapore sits in the chair that was once held by his mother. The man whose government oversaw the most corrupt period in Bangladesh’s history — five consecutive years ranked dead last on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index — now runs the country.
This is not a story about one man’s legal luck. This is a story about a system. A system where courts don’t dispense justice — they dispense acquittals on demand. A system where the rule of law bends, folds, and collapses under the weight of political power. A system that Bangladesh has seen before, under Awami League, and is now watching repeat under BNP with breathtaking speed and thoroughness.
Let me walk you through exactly how it happened.
The Great Acquittal: A Timeline
What follows is not a comprehensive legal document. It is a chronological record of how every major case from the BNP era (2001-2006) and its aftermath was systematically dismantled following the July 2024 uprising and BNP’s return to power. I am not going to give you legal analysis. I am going to give you dates, verdicts, and the unmistakable pattern they reveal.
The August 21 Grenade Attack (2004)
Let’s start with the biggest one.
On August 21, 2004, 13 military-grade Arges grenades were thrown into a crowd of 20,000 people at an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka. 24 people were killed. Over 500 were injured. Ivy Rahman, the AL Women’s Affairs Secretary, died three days later. Sheikh Hasina, then Leader of the Opposition, was injured but survived.
The investigation that followed was one of the most corrupt in Bangladesh’s history. The BNP government refused to register a proper FIR. They invented a scapegoat — “Joj Mia,” a pickpocket — and tortured him into a false confession. They washed the crime scene with detergent. They buried unidentified victims in the middle of the night. They formed a one-man judicial commission that blamed a “neighboring country” instead of investigating the actual perpetrators.
Eventually, the truth came out. In 2018, a special court delivered its verdict:
- 19 people sentenced to death, including Lutfozzaman Babar (former State Minister for Home Affairs), Abdus Salam Pintu (former Deputy Minister), and Major General Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury (former DGFI Director)
- 19 people sentenced to life imprisonment, including Tarique Rahman himself, along with Harris Chowdhury (Political Secretary to the PM) and Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad (former MP)
- Several others sentenced for harboring offenders, misleading the investigation, and fabricating the “Joj Mia” confession
The judge declared: “The specialised deadly Arges grenades that are used in wars were blasted at the Awami League’s central office on 23 Bangabandhu Avenue in broad daylight with the help of the then state machinery.”
This was a landmark verdict. It named names. It convicted a sitting minister, intelligence chiefs, and the Prime Minister’s own son. It established, in a court of law, that the 2004 grenade attack was a state-sponsored assassination attempt.
And then, on December 1, 2024, the High Court acquitted every single accused. All 49 of them. Tarique Rahman. Babar. Pintu. The intelligence chiefs. The HUJI operatives. Everyone.
The court said the trial court had failed to prove the charges. The witnesses were unreliable. The evidence was insufficient. The entire prosecution case, built over more than a decade, collapsed in a single ruling.
On September 4, 2025, the Appellate Division dismissed a petition for retrial, putting a final nail in the coffin. The grenade attack that killed 24 people, injured 500, and was adjudicated through one of the longest and most watched trials in Bangladesh’s history now has zero convicted perpetrators.
The Chittagong Arms Haul (2004)
Same year. Same pattern. Different atrocity.
On April 1, 2004, police and Coast Guard intercepted the loading of weapons onto ten trucks at the Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited jetty. This was the largest arms smuggling operation in the history of Bangladesh:
- 4,930 firearms
- 27,020 grenades
- 840 rocket launchers
- 300 rockets
- 2,000 grenade launching tubes
- 6,392 magazines
- 1,140,520 bullets
These weapons were bound for ULFA — the United Liberation Front of Asom, an insurgent group fighting for Assam’s independence from India. Confessions established that the operation was conducted under the direct supervision of ULFA leader Paresh Baruah, with the knowledge and involvement of BNP government officials, National Security Intelligence (NSI) officers, and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) personnel.
Those charged included Motiur Rahman Nizami (Jamaat-e-Islami chief, former Industries Minister in the BNP government) and Lutfozzaman Babar (State Minister for Home Affairs — the same Babar convicted in the grenade attack case).
In January 2014, a special court sentenced 14 people to death, including Nizami, Babar, and former NSI chiefs.
Then, on December 18, 2024, the High Court acquitted Babar and five others, including former NSI Director General Major General Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury. On January 14, 2025, the High Court acquitted Babar and Chowdhury in the Arms Act case as well. Paresh Baruah’s death sentence was reduced to 14 years. Four others had their sentences reduced to 10 years.
The largest arms cache ever seized on Bangladeshi soil, linked to an insurgency in a neighboring country, facilitated by the sitting government’s intelligence apparatus — and the key political figures walk free.
The Zia Orphanage Trust Case
In 2009, the Anti-Corruption Commission accused Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman of embezzling Tk 2.1 crore (US $305,000) from the Zia Orphanage Trust — a charity fund for orphans, named after former President Ziaur Rahman. Foreign donations intended for parentless children were allegedly siphoned by the former Prime Minister and her son.
This wasn’t a fringe case. The evidence was documented. The money trail was traced. The orphans who were supposed to benefit never received what was promised.
In February 2018, a special court convicted both Khaleda and Tarique. Khaleda was sentenced to 5 years (later enhanced to 10 years by the High Court in October 2018). Tarique was sentenced to 10 years in absentia.
On January 16, 2025, the Supreme Court acquitted both Khaleda and Tarique. The orphans’ money — gone. The conviction — erased.
The Zia Charitable Trust Case
A separate but related corruption case involving the Zia Charitable Trust. Same pattern. Same family. Same outcome.
Khaleda convicted. Sentenced to 7 years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Tk 1 million.
On November 27, 2024, the High Court acquitted Khaleda Zia, declaring the verdict null and void.
The Money Laundering Case
Tarique Rahman and his business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun were accused of laundering approximately $20 million abroad. The FBI investigated. Singapore courts found evidence. The ACC filed the case in June 2007.
In November 2013, the trial court acquitted Tarique. In July 2016, the High Court overturned the acquittal and sentenced him to 7 years’ imprisonment with a fine of Tk 20 crore. The High Court said Tarique had “influenced political power to help his close friend, Giasuddin Mamun, to get and then launder 200 million taka ($2.5m).”
On December 10, 2024, the Supreme Court stayed the 7-year sentence. On March 6, 2025, the Appellate Division acquitted both Tarique and Mamun.
$2.5 million. Proven in two courts. Gone in one ruling.
Shamim Iskander’s Corruption Case
Khaleda Zia’s younger brother, Shamim Iskander, was accused of amassing Tk 1.33 crore through illegal means and concealing information about Tk 81.81 lakh from the ACC. The ACC filed charges with 36 prosecution witnesses. This was the man who nearly bankrupted Biman Bangladesh Airlines through crooked aircraft leasing deals, earning at least Tk 40 crore in commissions while the national carrier bled Tk 250 crore on leased aircraft that could have been purchased outright for less.
On March 25, 2025, a Dhaka court discharged Shamim Iskander and his wife from the corruption case. Discharged. Not retried. Not reduced. Dismissed.
And in March 2026, Shamim Iskander sat in the VIP gallery of Parliament at the maiden session of the 13th Parliament, in the second row, alongside his wife and the Prime Minister’s sister-in-law. From accused corrupt figure bleeding the national airline dry to Parliament VIP. That’s the trajectory. That’s the system.
The Pattern: Identical Playbook, Different Party
If this feels familiar, it should. Because we have seen this exact pattern before — under Awami League.
When Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009, her government systematically pursued cases against BNP leaders. The International Crimes Tribunal was established to try war criminals from 1971, and while its stated purpose was legitimate, its execution was widely criticized as a tool for eliminating political opposition. BNP and Jamaat leaders were tried, convicted, and in some cases executed. The process was criticized by international legal observers, including the International Bar Association, for lacking due process.
BNP called this a witch hunt. They said the cases were politically motivated. They said the courts were compromised. They said the justice system had been weaponized.
And they had a point. Not about every case — some of the charges were based on real evidence — but about the pattern. When the ruling party controls the judiciary, the judiciary serves the ruling party. This is not a controversial statement. It is a documented fact in Bangladesh. The International Crisis Group said it. Human Rights Watch said it. The US State Department said it. Everyone who has studied Bangladesh’s legal system has said it.
But here is what BNP does not say anymore, now that they are the ones in power:
The same thing is happening in reverse.
Every conviction from the BNP era has been overturned. Every case has been acquitted. Every accused person has walked free. And the speed is staggering. Between December 2024 and March 2025 — a four-month window — the following cases were resolved:
- August 21 grenade attack: All 49 accused acquitted (December 2024)
- Chittagong arms haul: Babar and 5 others acquitted (December 2024–January 2025)
- Zia Charitable Trust: Khaleda Zia acquitted (November 2024)
- Zia Orphanage Trust: Khaleda and Tarique acquitted (January 2025)
- Tarique money laundering: Tarique and Mamun acquitted (March 2025)
- Shamim Iskander corruption: Case discharged (March 2025)
Six months. Every major BNP-era case. Gone.
Coincidence? You can believe that if you want. You can tell yourself that the legal system finally corrected itself, that the original trials were indeed flawed, that justice has been served. But you would have to believe something remarkable: that every single case against every single BNP figure was illegitimate. Not some. Not most. All of them. The grenade attack. The arms smuggling. The money laundering. The corruption. The orphanage theft. All of it — every charge, every conviction, every piece of evidence — was wrong.
That is not the behavior of a justice system correcting errors. That is the behavior of a justice system being operated by remote control.
The Math Doesn’t Lie
Let me give you some numbers that should make anyone pause.
In the August 21 grenade attack case, the trial court heard testimony from 225 witnesses. The investigation spanned 14 years. The charge sheet alone ran to 6,000+ pages. The verdict was delivered after one of the longest trials in Bangladesh’s history. And then the High Court threw it all out in a single ruling.
In the money laundering case, the High Court upheld Tarique’s conviction in 2016, explicitly stating he had used political influence to launder money. Eight years later, the Appellate Division acquitted him. Same facts. Same evidence. Different government. Different result.
In the Chittagong arms haul case, confessional statements from accused persons established the involvement of NSI and DGFI officers in the smuggling operation. The trial court found the evidence sufficient for the death penalty. The High Court said it wasn’t sufficient for any penalty at all.
This is not about whether the original trials were perfect. They almost certainly were not. In Bangladesh, few trials meet the standards of due process that international law requires. But the issue is not the imperfections of the original proceedings. The issue is the pattern of total, systematic, complete exoneration that follows every change of government. The issue is that the outcome of every case is predetermined by who holds power, not by what the evidence shows.
When Awami League was in power, BNP leaders went to jail. When BNP is in power, BNP leaders walk free. The evidence hasn’t changed. The witnesses haven’t changed. The only thing that changed is the government.
That is not a justice system. That is a revolving door.
What About the Victims?
You know what gets lost in all the legal proceedings and political spin? The people who were actually hurt.
The 24 people who died on August 21, 2004. They have names. Ivy Rahman. Women’s Affairs Secretary of the Awami League, who held on for three days before succumbing to her injuries. There were 23 others — students, activists, bodyguards, ordinary citizens who came to a political rally and never went home. Their families waited 14 years for a verdict. They got one in 2018. And then, in 2024, that verdict was wiped away like it never happened.
The 44 people who died in custody during Operation Clean Heart. The government called them “heart attacks.” The Indemnity Act protected their killers. The law was eventually struck down — in 2015, twelve years after the operation ended. But no one was ever held accountable. Not before. Not after. Not under any government.
The 600+ Hindu women of Bhola, raped in the aftermath of the 2001 election. A judicial inquiry commission documented 18,000 rapes. The BNP called the commission’s findings “partisan.” The victims are still waiting.
The 600+ people killed by RAB in “crossfire” encounters. The US Treasury Department imposed Global Magnitsky sanctions on RAB in December 2021, citing “serious human rights violations” including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. After the sanctions, the killings dropped dramatically. Which tells you something about whether they were necessary or not.
Every single one of these victims has been told, in one way or another, that their suffering doesn’t matter. That the legal system exists to protect the powerful, not to deliver justice to the harmed. That the courts are a tool of the state, not a check on it.
And now, the ultimate insult: the courts have confirmed it. Every conviction overturned. Every accused freed. Every case resolved in favor of the people who now hold power.
The International Dimension
It is worth noting that this pattern is not just a domestic concern. The international community has been watching, and what they see is troubling.
The United States, through its diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, described Tarique Rahman as a “symbol of kleptocratic government” and the “Dark Prince” of Bangladeshi politics. The FBI investigated his money laundering. Singapore courts found evidence of it. The US Treasury sanctioned RAB for extrajudicial killings. The International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International all documented systematic human rights violations under BNP rule.
These are not partisan Bangladeshi organizations with political axes to grind. These are independent international bodies with established methodologies and reputations to protect. Their findings were based on field documentation, witness testimony, and forensic evidence. And now, every single one of those findings has been effectively nullified by Bangladeshi courts operating under a BNP government.
What message does this send? It tells the international community that Bangladesh’s courts are not independent. That legal outcomes are determined by political power, not by evidence. That a change in government means a complete rewrite of the legal record. And it tells future investigators — whether from the UN, the US, or anywhere else — that their work will be undone the moment the political winds shift.
This has consequences. Trade preferences. Development assistance. Military cooperation. All of these are tied, in various ways, to governance standards. When a country’s justice system operates as an extension of the ruling party, the world takes notice. And not in a good way.
The Whataboutism Defense
Here is what BNP supporters will say, and it’s worth addressing head-on.
“What about Awami League? They did the same thing. They used the courts to persecute BNP leaders. They rigged the ICT to execute Jamaat leaders. They disappeared hundreds of people. They stole elections. Why aren’t you writing about that?”
Let me be very clear: I have written about that. Extensively. This publication has documented Awami League’s abuses in detail — the enforced disappearances, the press suppression, the election rigging, the institutional capture, the political persecution. Every single one of those articles is still up. Every accusation is still sourced. Every condemnation still stands.
But here’s the thing: Awami League’s abuses do not justify BNP’s abuses. The fact that one party weaponized the courts does not make it acceptable when the other party does the same thing. The fact that Hasina’s government persecuted BNP leaders does not make it right for Tarique’s government to erase every case against itself.
That is not justice. That is not accountability. That is not even revenge. That is the same playbook with different actors.
And if we accept it — if we shrug and say “well, the other side did it too” — then we are accepting that Bangladesh’s courts will forever be a tool of whoever holds power. We are accepting that there is no such thing as accountability, only power. We are accepting that the rule of law is a fiction, and that the only law that matters is the law of the powerful.
I refuse to accept that. And if you care about Bangladesh’s future, you should refuse too.
The Fundamental Question
All of this — the acquittals, the discharged cases, the overturned convictions — raises a question that nobody in Bangladesh’s current government wants to answer:
If none of these cases had merit, why did it take a change of government for the courts to figure that out?
If Tarique Rahman was innocent of money laundering, the evidence should have been insufficient regardless of who was in power. If the grenade attack investigation was flawed, the High Court should have identified those flaws years ago, not in December 2024, three months after BNP took control. If Shamim Iskander’s corruption case was baseless, it should have been dismissed on its merits, not after his sister-in-law became the most powerful person in the country.
But that’s not what happened. What happened is that the courts waited. They waited until the political moment was right. They waited until the people they were asked to judge were the ones signing their appointments. And then they delivered the verdicts that were expected of them.
This is not a coincidence. It is a pattern. And the pattern is this: in Bangladesh, the courts answer to the government, not to the constitution.
That was true under Awami League. It is true under BNP. It has been true under every government since independence. And until it changes — until the judiciary becomes genuinely independent, until judges are appointed on merit rather than loyalty, until the legal system serves the people instead of the party in power — it will remain true.
The acquittals are not the problem. The problem is that every single acquittal went in the same direction. The problem is the 100% success rate. The problem is that in a country where the courts are supposed to be independent, the outcome of every politically charged case is perfectly correlated with who holds power.
Statistically, that is impossible unless the system is rigged.
What Comes Next
So where does this leave Bangladesh?
It leaves a country where the past cannot be reckoned with because the present won’t allow it. It leaves the families of 24 grenade attack victims with no legal recourse. It leaves the survivors of Operation Clean Heart with no accountability. It leaves the women of Bhola with no justice. It leaves a nation where the most powerful people can commit the most serious crimes and face absolutely no consequences, as long as they win the next election.
It leaves a country where the legal system is not a shield for the weak — it is a weapon for the strong.
And it leaves a question that every Bangladeshi must answer: if the courts won’t hold the powerful accountable, who will?
The international community? The US has already sanctioned RAB and expressed concerns about judicial independence. But sanctions are tools of foreign policy, not instruments of justice. They can pressure governments, but they cannot replace a broken legal system.
Civil society? Human rights organizations in Bangladesh operate under increasing pressure. The Digital Security Act — renamed but not reformed — still criminalizes criticism. Journalists still face harassment, intimidation, and worse. The space for independent reporting is shrinking, not expanding.
The people? The people of Bangladesh have shown, twice in living memory, that they can remove a government they no longer trust. They did it in 2007, when the 1/11 caretaker government stepped in. They did it again in July 2024, when the student-led uprising toppled Awami League. But removing a government is not the same as holding it accountable. And if the pattern continues — if every new government simply reverses the convictions of the previous government — then the cycle of impunity will never end.
The Real Acquittal
There is one more thing to say, and it is the most important thing.
The courts acquitted Tarique Rahman. They acquitted Babar. They acquitted Khaleda Zia. They discharged Shamim Iskander. They threw out the grenade attack case, the arms haul case, the money laundering case, the corruption cases, the orphanage trust case, the charitable trust case.
But the courts cannot acquit history.
The US diplomatic cables describing Tarique as a “symbol of kleptocratic government” still exist. The FBI investigation into his money laundering still happened. The Singapore court findings still stand. The Human Rights Watch reports, the Amnesty International documentation, the International Crisis Group analyses — none of these have been overturned, because they exist outside Bangladesh’s courts, beyond the reach of whatever government is in power in Dhaka.
The 24 people who died on August 21, 2004 still died. The 44 people who were killed in custody during Operation Clean Heart still never came home. The 18,000 rapes documented by the judicial inquiry commission still happened. The Tk 2.1 crore that was supposed to go to orphans still disappeared. The $2.5 million that was laundered through Singapore still moved through those accounts. The 4,930 guns and 27,020 grenades found at the Chittagong jetty still existed.
A court can overturn a conviction. A government can withdraw a case. A party can rewrite the legal record. But it cannot un-kill the dead. It cannot un-rape the living. It cannot un-steal the money. It cannot un-smuggle the weapons.
The facts are the facts. And the facts say that between 2001 and 2006, Bangladesh was run by a government that presided over the most corrupt period in the country’s history, that allowed — and in many cases directed — systematic human rights violations, that protected Islamist militants, that facilitated arms smuggling to foreign insurgents, that covered up a grenade attack on the political opposition, and that used every lever of state power to shield itself from accountability.
The courts may have said “not guilty.” The history says otherwise.
And history, unlike Bangladesh’s courts, does not change its verdict when the government changes.
Next in the series: We examine how BNP’s control of the judiciary extends beyond acquittals — into the appointment of judges, the restructuring of the Anti-Corruption Commission, and the systematic dismantling of every institution designed to check the power of the ruling party.
Sources: Bangladesh Special Court verdicts (2018); High Court acquittal orders (2024-2025); Supreme Court Appellate Division rulings; Anti-Corruption Commission case records; US Embassy Cables (WikiLeaks, 2005-2006); Human Rights Watch, “Judge, Jury, and Executioner” (2006); International Crisis Group reports; Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (2001-2005); The Daily Star; Dhaka Tribune; bdnews24.com; Prothom Alo; BBC News; AFP.