At a press conference Jubo League leaders said police directed and assisted Kalu in the attack, which left nine bus passengers killed and 15 injured, as per an evil design of the four-party coalition government to put the blame of it on Awami League (AL) and its youth wing.

"It is clear that Kalu was directed and assisted by police in the arson, which was actually planned by the government," Jubo League President Jahangir Kabir Nanok said.

He said the confessional statement Kalu made before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was a downright repetition of an earlier confession by a notorious gangster Tokai Masum in this connection.

He quoted an August 2 news story ran by Dinkal, a pro-BNP daily, reporting that Kalu, son of Hazrat Ali of Baligaon village under Tongibari upazila of Munshiganj, in his statement named Nanok, Jubo League General Secretary Mirza Azam MP and City AL Organising Secretary Sayeed Khokon as the masterminds behind the arson.

"What we categorically point out is the fact that Kalu was in police custody that day, and we have documentary proofs," Nanok counterattacked.

He cited a case filed with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Dhaka, to state that Ramna police had arrested Kalu on June 3 in a mugging case [No. 01(6) 2004] and produced before the court praying for a five-day remand. The court granted a remand for one day, that is to say, on June 4 Kalu was in police custody, the Jubo League chief said elaborating on his defence.

On June 5 police again brought Kalu before the court and he was freed on bail on June 8, Nanok added. "[With these documentary proofs,] we were able to uncover the alliance government's plot to implicate Awami League and Jubo League in the arson and the resulting deaths."

M Ziaul Hasan Jamal, counsel of Kalu, told the conference, "Kalu told me he was forced to make the confessional statement. He even faced the threat to be killed by lethal injection if he does not come up with the statement."

Mirza Azam said the statement by metropolitan police commissioner of Dhaka immediately after the arson that gunpowder was used in the attack shows police were behind the scene.

Jubo League Joint General Secretary Obaidul Quader claimed the implication of Nanok, Azam and Khokon in the arson was plotted by the forces who want to turn the country into a Talebani state.

He said the bomb blasts in Satkhira, Mymensingh and Sylhet were not stray incidents but planned ones to avenge the defeat suffered in 1971.

The conference was held at the Jubo League's Bangabandhu Avenue office in the capital.