Several influential leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party were involved in the 2004 grenade attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and they used banned Harkatul Jihad (HuJI) to carryout the plot, according to a media report on Tuesday.

The 'Daily Star investigation' claimed the "chilling conspiracy" to kill Hasina was hatched at Hawa Bhabhan, the office of Zia's elder son Tarique Rahman.

"The Awami League was branded as the archenemy of the country and Islam and it was recommended that its President Sheikh Hasina must die," the paper quoted the conspirators as saying.

"(Ex-junior minister for Home Litfuzzaman) Babar supplied the grenades (while) HuJI was used as mercenary group," the report said.

The Daily Star said the report was based on a "highly privileged document" it obtained and information collected by a reporter of the daily from investigators and intelligence officials involved with the probe over the last five years.

The report came as Criminal Investigation Department on Monday sought to remand Babar, already behind bars for the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on Hasina, in custody for 10 days under a court order for interrogation.

Hasina narrowly escaped the attack launched at a party rally in Dhaka but it killed 24 people and crippled nearly 400 others.

"We have got vital information and evidence regarding his involvement in the August 21 grenade attack following the confessional statements of some other suspects," CID superintendent Abdul Kahhar Akand told newsmen yesterday.

Babar, who was the state minister for home in ex-prime minister Khalda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) regime, is currently serving 17 years of imprisonment for possessing weapons illegally.

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