Nation pays tributes to martyrs of Aug 21 grenade attack

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DHAKA, Aug 21, 2018 (BSS) – The nation today recalled the savage August
21 grenade attack of 2004 with a heavy heart paying homage to the martyrs of
the carnage.

Marking the 14th anniversary of the grenade attack on an Awami League
(AL) rally, the ruling AL, its associate bodies and its left-leaning allies,
and other political parties, social-cultural and professional organisations
placed wreaths at the temporary memorial erected on the spot of the
occurrence at Bangabandhu Avenue in the city paying deep homage to the
martyrs.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina first placed a wreath at the memorial and
then flanked by leaders of Awami League, she, as president of the party,
placed another wreath.

Cabinet members, PM’s advisors, senior leaders of Awami League and 14-
party combine and family members of the martyrs and those injured in the
incident were present.

A one minute silence was observed in memory of those killed in the
grenade attack while a munajat was also offered seeking eternal peace of the
departed souls.

On August 21 in 2004, the gruesome grenade attack was launched on an
anti-terrorism public rally of AL at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital during
the rule of BNP-Jamaat alliance government aiming to eliminate the party
leadership.

The then opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
and other front-ranking leaders of AL escaped the carnage.

But 24 leaders and workers of AL, its associate bodies including the
then Mahila AL president Ivy Rahman, wife of late President Zillur Rahman,
were killed.

About 400 others suffered splinter injuries in the attack and many of
them became crippled for life.

Though Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack, she lost her hearing
ability due to the impact of the repeated grenade blasts near the truck-dais
of the huge public rally.

AL leaders including the then mayor of Dhaka City late Mohammad Hanif
and the leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina’s personal security squad
saved their party chief forming a human shield.