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The 16th anniversary of the gruesome grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) anti-terrorism rally in Dhaka on August 21, 2004 is being observed today with heavy hearts, BSS reports.
The grisly grenade attack was carried out at an anti-terrorism rally of Awami League (AL) on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21, 2004 aiming to bankrupt the party leadership during the BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
With the grace of the Almighty, the then opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other front ranking AL leaders narrowly escaped the carnage.
But, 24 people including the then Women Affairs Secretary of Awami League and wife of late President Zillur Rahman were killed and over 500 others injured in the attack and many of them became crippled for life.
Those others killed in the barbaric grenade attack included the then opposition leader’s personal security guard Lance Corporal (retd) Mahbubur Rashid, Abul Kalam Azad, Rezina Begum, Nasir Uddin Sardar, Atique Sarkar, Abdul Kuddus Patwari, Aminul Islam Moazzem, Belal Hossain, Mamun Mridha, Ratan Shikdar, Liton Munshi, Hasina Mamtaz Reena, Sufia Begum, Rafiqul Islam (Ada Chacha), Mostaque Ahmed Sentu, Md Hanif, Abul Kashem, Zahed Ali, Momen Ali, M Shamsuddin and Ishaque Miah.
Prominent among those who suffered serious splinter injuries included Sheikh Hasina, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta, Obaidul Quader, Advocate Sahara Khatun, Mohammad Hanif, Prof Abu Sayeed, and AFM Bahauddin Nasim.
Marking the anniversary, the ruling AL, its front and associate bodies and its left-leaning allies, and other political parties, social-cultural and professional organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes across the country, maintaining health guidelines in the wake of the Covid-19 situation.
As part of the programmes, AL and its associate bodies will place wreaths at the altar in front of the party’s central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in the morning today while central 14-party alliance as well as Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JASAD) will place wreaths at the same venue in the morning.
Besides, Bangabandhu Gobeshona Parishad will pay homage to martyrs of August 21 by placing wreaths at the altar in front of AL’s central office at Bangabandhu Avenue and hold a discussion, milad and doa mahfil at its central office in the city’s Purana Paltan area in the morning.
The nation’s long wait seeking justice of the brutal grenade attack that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 500 finally ended as a special court pronounced the verdict of a case filed over the attack on October 10, 2018.
The court awarded death sentence to 19 people including former Home Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar and life imprisonment to 19 including ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s fugitive son Tarique Rahman in connection with the grenade attack.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid rich tributes to the victims of August 21 grenade attack in 2004 and prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls of the martyrs.
In separate messages on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the heinous grenade attack, they urged all to come forward being imbued with the spirit of Liberation War to turn the sorrows of August 21 into strength for building a peaceful and democratic Bangladesh which will be free from terrorism and militancy.
"August 21 grenade attack in 2004 is a mournful day as the killers launched history's barbaric grenade attacks on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue with an attempt to kill Bangabandhu's daughter Sheikh Hasina," said President Abdul Hamid in his message.
In a separate message, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the barbaric grenade attack was carried out on that day in 2004 under the direct patronization of BNP-Jamaat alliance during an anti-terrorism rally of Awami League to kill her.