DHAKA: Accusing Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman and the past BNP-Jamaat government of perpetrating the gruesome grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital on August 21, 2004, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asserted that punishment would be inflicted to those responsible for the heinous attack.
“It was not possible to carry out such attack without patronisation of the BNP-Jamaat government,” she said while addressing a memorial discussion marking the 15th anniversary of the August 21 grenade attack at Krishibid Institute of Bangladesh (KIB) here Wednesday (August 21).
The premier went on saying that “It (the patronization of BNP-Jamaat in the grenade attack) has become a truth that was proved by evidences and we have got a verdict upon filing a case.”
The prime minister said that incidents of staging Joj Mia drama, destroying evidences of the grenade attack, barring the AL volunteers from going to the rooftops of adjoining buildings around the rally venue, subjecting the party leaders and activists to torture by charging batons and throwing teargas shells to help the attackers to flee from the scene and conducting an judicial inquiry bore testimony to evidences of BNP-Jamaat’s patronization in the grenade attack.
“Now, it will go to the higher court as death reference and we hoped to get the justice. Regrettably, the party leaders, workers and supporters who were killed in the attack would not return anymore,” she said.
Twenty-four people, including Bangladesh Mohila Awami League President Ivy Rahman, were killed and over 500 others suffered injuries in the attack and many of them became crippled for life, the primer said.
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 Advisory Council Member Amir Hossain Amu, its Presidium Members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, and Adv. Sahara Khatun MP, AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, central leader Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya (Bir Bikram), Organising Secretaries BM Mozammel Haque and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon, Dhaka South City AL President Abul Hasnat, AL leader SM Kamal Hossain, and Dhaka North City AL General Secretary Sadek Khan, spoke on the occasion.
Publicity and Publication Secretary of AL and Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud and its Deputy Publicity and Publication Secretary Aminul Islam jointly moderated the function.
BDST: 2121 HRS, AUG 21, 2019
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