August-21 today

The nation is observing with a heavy heart the 11th anniversary of the savage August 21 grenade attack with a renewed demand for expediting the trials of the perpetrators of the carnage. On this day in 2004, the gruesome grenade attack was launched on an anti-terrorism public rally of the then opposition Awami League (AL) at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka during the rule of four-party alliance regime. With the grace of the almighty, the then opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other front ranking leaders of AL escaped the carnage. But over 100 AL leaders and activists, including the then Mahila Awami League leader Ivy Rahman, died either at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21 or a few days after the heinous attack. During the grenade attack, former Dhaka city mayor Mohammad Hanif and the then leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina’s personal security squad saved their party chief forming a human shield around her. Though Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack she lost her hearing ability due to the impact of the repeated grenade explosions near the truck-dais of the huge public rally. Later, AL leader Mohammad Hanif, who suffered splinter injuries on his head and other parts of the body, succumbed to serious pellet injuries at a hospital in Bangkok as the pellets of grenades could not be removed from his brain by operation. But 100 leaders and workers of AL, its associate bodies including the then Mahila AL president Ivy Rahman, wife of late President of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman, were killed and over 500 others suffered splinter injuries in the attack and many of them became crippled for life, according to a news agency.
- biplab