DHAKA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A Bangladesh court handed a former deputy minister over to police for interrogation on Friday for alleged involvement in a deadly grenade attack at a political rally in Dhaka three and a half years ago.

"Abdus Salam Pintu, a former deputy information minister, has been remanded to police for three days for interrogation," a court official said.

The attack at a rally held by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Aug. 21, 2004 killed 23 people and injured over 150.

Hasina, then opposition leader, survived, but her hearing was affected by the blasts.

Police picked up Pintu from Dhaka's Motijheel area Thursday night and produced him before the metropolitan judge, Abdullah Al Mamun, Friday afternoon.

Pintu was taken in following a statement by Mufti Hannan, a detained leader of a banned Islamist group, Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HUJI), that Pintu masterminded the plan to launch the attack on the rally of the opposition.

Three top HUJI leaders including Hannan told a court in November last year that they (HUJI leaders) were responsible for the grenade attack.

Police said the detained militants had given detailed statements why and how they launched the attack.

Mufti Hannan was arrested in October 2005 during a hunt for suspected Islamists who launched a series of bombings including suicide attacks, between August and December 2005 that killed at least 30 people and wounded 150. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed)

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