13th anniversary of Aug 21 grenade attacks today

Staff Correspondent: The nation with heavy hearts is observing the 13th anniversary of the gruesome August 21 grenade attack today (Monday) with a renewed call for holding trials of perpetrators of the carnage.

Although 13 years have been elapsed after the savage, the trial in the cases relating to the grenade attacks has not yet been disposed of, but the prosecution expressed their hope to complete it by this year.

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 the AL 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 other killed in the barbaric grenade attack included 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.

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 marking the anniversary.



risingbd/Dhaka/Aug 21/NR/Mukul