Staff Reporter :
The ruling Awami League (AL) on Sunday is going to observe the 18th anniversary of the gruesome grenade attack that took place in 2004.
During the BNP-Jamaat coalition government, the attack was carried out on a peaceful gathering of Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue where the then opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was present.
She was miraculously survived, as her party leaders and workers formed a human shield to protect her from the attack. She was cordoned off in a car and taken to her then residence Sudha Sadan in Dhanmondi.
However, the gruesome attack killed some 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.
After the attack, when the Awami League leaders and activists were busy trying to save themselves and others, the police charged the protest march fiercely with batons and tear shells.
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 chalked out elaborate programmes across the country.
A discussion will be held at 10:30 am to recall the victims of the dreadful in memory of those killed in the August 21 grenade attacks. Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will preside over it and will deliver a speech.
Prior to that, wreaths will be placed at the altar build for the 21 August martyrs in front of the Awami League central office at Bangabandhu Avenue.
Meanwhile, 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 a message, she mentioned that anti-liberation sectarian groups and the group of anti-development and anti-democracy are still vocal in various ways.
Terming the grenade attack a ‘stigmatized day’ in the history of the country, she said, “Our dedicated party leaders and workers saved me from the series of grenade attacks by forming a human shield.”
“I survived the attack due to immense blessings of the Almighty, but some 24 leaders and workers including president of Mahila Awami League Ivy Rahman embraced martyrdom,” the premier said.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Police issued a traffic advisory saying as the ruling party Awami League is set to observe the day with various programmes in the capital, traffic will be limited on the Press Club, Paltan and Zero Point routes from 9am.
The vehicles operating on the roads will be diverted till the programs end.
The DMP has asked city dwellers to use alternate routes during this time to avoid traffic congestion.
