A Bangladesh court has granted relief to Abdus Salam Pintu, a former junior minister and member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who was released on Tuesday after 17 years in jail. Pintu was convicted of aiding the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) in its operations against India, including a 2004 grenade attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Pintu played a critical role in HuJI’s activities, facilitating weapons procurement, recruitment, and training programs in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). He was also accused of training madrassa students in explosives and mobilizing resources for insurgents operating in Kashmir. HuJI, a globally designated terrorist organization, has conducted multiple attacks in India, including the 2006 Varanasi court bombings and the 2007 Ajmer Sharif Dargah bombing.
Pintu’s release follows the acquittal of another BNP leader, Lutfozzaman Babar, who was implicated in the same 2004 assassination attempt on Hasina and a major arms haul case. According to investigations, both leaders supported HuJI’s mission to destabilize India and Afghanistan, with Pintu’s brother, HuJI leader Moulana Tajuddin, playing a key role in these operations.
The Dhaka court previously highlighted HuJI’s alignment with Pakistan’s “Bleed India with a Thousand Cuts” strategy, carried out in collaboration with groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Pintu’s release is part of a broader trend of Islamist hardliners regaining freedom, raising concerns about Bangladesh’s political and security dynamics under new leadership.
