This file photo shows a still of the lifeless bodies left scattered after the grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004. File Photo Today is one of the cruelest days in the political history of the country as miscreants hurled grenades at an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21, 2004, leaving at least 24 people dead, including Awami League women affairs leader Ivy Rahman, and scores wounded. AL president and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the brutal attack, but suffered damage in the right ear. Many others are haunted still after 10 years of the heartrending incident. The perpetrators are still at large as the case has still been pending. The case opened with ‘Judge Mia drama’ to move motives of the attack to a different direction. Even, the present Awami League-led government has been very slow over unearthing the clues. It was just 5:22pm on this day of August 21. The Bangabandhu Avenue turned into a place of bloodstain as many people suffered splinter wounds and lay on the streets. The ruling Awami League has chalked up elaborate programmes to observe the day. Sheikh Hasina along with her party leaders and activists will place wreaths at the makeshift altar on Bangabandhu Avenue. She will also meet the families of the victims. The ruling party alleged that the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance government carried out the attack on the rally to kill Sheikh Hasina to make Awami League leaderless. The day of that year was Saturday. Sheikh Hasina was present at the rally as chief guest. When she finished her speech with the slogan ‘Joy Bangla Joy Bangabandhu’, miscreants started hurling grenades. After the rally, an anti-violence procession was supposed to be brought out. Commoners along with AL leaders and activists became stunned as grenades started pouring into the political gathering and exploded loudly, killing at least 16 activists on the spot. Ivy Rahman succumbed to her injuries after fighting for 58 hours at hospital. The entire area looked like a sea of blood. The leaders and activists started screaming and made human shield to save Sheikh Hasina’s life. Her private security man, Mahbubur Rahman, sacrificed his life as he received bullets in a bid to save her life. Many leaders, including Suranjit Sengupta, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Kazi Zafarullah, Abdul Latif Siddique, Obaidul Quader, Sahara Khatun, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Maj Gen (Rtd) Tareq Ahmed Siddique, AFM Bahauddin Nasim and Pankaj Debnath, escaped death. But they still haunted over the gruesome incident as they have been living life with splinter injuries. A total of 52 accused persons, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s elder son Tarique Rahman and then state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, are now facing trial in the August 21 grenade attack case. AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam in a press release has asked the leaders and activists to observe the day in a befitting manner. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued a message on the occasion of the day. In her message, the premier said the August 21 grenade attack was aimed to frustrate independence, democracy, peace and development, BSS reports. “The aim of the August 21 was also to give killing, conspiracy, militancy, corruption and misrule a permanent shape, destroy the spirit of the War of Liberation and make Bangladesh leaderless,” she added. Sheikh Hasina also said although it was the moral responsibility of a government to bring the killers to book, the then BNP-Jamaat government tried their best to protect them. “Even the then government helped a number of attackers to flee the country and destroyed the evidence of the incident. In the name of investigation, they also tried to divert the heinous crime to other direction,” she added. Citing the investigation report, the Prime Minister said truth could not be suppressed. “Many of the players belonging to the BNP-Jamaat alliance were directly involved in the grisly attack. It is now clear who made the blueprint sitting in which bhaban to carry out the attack,” she added. Sheikh Hasina hoped that the killing, terrorism and militancy would end in the country for ever, and rule of law would be established after the holding of trial of the attackers, planners, orderers and patrons. Terming the August 21 a ‘day of black chapter’ in the country’s political history, Sheikh Hasina said, “The killers carried out the barbaric attack in broad daylight on an anti-militancy rally of Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue to kill me under the patronage of the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government.” “Our party leaders and workers by forming a human-shield saved me from the series of grenade attacks,” she recalled. The Prime Minister said she narrowly survived the attack due to divine blessing. “But some 24 leaders and workers, including president of Mohila Awami League Ivy Rahman, embraced martyrdom and over 500 AL leaders and workers, journalists and security personnel were injured,” she said, adding many of the injured are now leading a painful life with splinters. She urged all to pay rich tributes to the martyrs of August 21 by building a peaceful and safe country as well as a terrorism-free democratic political environment.
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