The nation is set to observe the 15th anniversary of the gruesome grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) anti-terrorism rally in the capital on August 21 in 2004 today with heavy hearts.
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 junior 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.
With the verdict pronounced by Dhaka’s 1st Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Shahed Nur Uddin, the nation was freed from stigma of committing most shocking crime in the political history.
The gruesome grenade attack was carried out at an anti-terrorism rally of Awami League (AL) at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21 in 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 leaders of AL narrowly escaped the carnage.
But, 24 people including the then Mahila AL president and wife of late Bangladesh president Zillur Rahman were killed and over 500 others injured in the attack and many of them became crippled for life.
Those who were 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 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.
AL and its associate bodies will place wreaths at a makeshift altar in front of the party’s central office at Bangabandhu Avenue at 9am today.
A discussion will be held at Krishibid Institution of Bangladesh (KIB) at Khamarbari in city’s Farmgate area at 4pm.
Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to chair the discussion.Intellectuals and national leaders will address it.
