Awami League Programs to Commemorate Martyrs of August 21 Grenade Attack

❐ BD Digest Desk

The Bangladesh Awami League has once again adopted a central program in memory of those killed and injured in the horrific grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21, 2004.

The party has informed that on Thursday, August 21st, a memorial service will be held to pay tribute to the martyrs at the memorial built on Bangabandhu Avenue. A virtual discussion meeting will be held at 5 pm, presided over by Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

On this day in 2004, a hellish grenade attack was carried out on a peaceful rally of the Awami League against terrorism, militancy and corruption. In that attack, a total of 24 leaders and activists, including the party’s women’s affairs secretary and wife of the late President Zillur Rahman, Ivy Rahman, lost their lives and more than 500 leaders and activists and journalists were injured. Many of the injured are still living inhumane lives with shrapnel wounds on their bodies.

The statement reminded that the main aim of this attack was to dethrone the party and kill Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina. During the attack, her car was targeted and shots were fired. Sheikh Hasina survived but suffered permanent hearing damage.

After a long judicial process, the court announced the verdict in 2018. Out of a total of 49 defendants in the two cases, 19 were sentenced to death, 19 to life imprisonment, and the rest to various terms of imprisonment.

The Awami League statement mentioned that this attack was a heinous conspiracy carried out in continuation of the brutal killings of August 15, 1975, which was carried out with the direct sponsorship of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government.

The Bangladesh Awami League has marked August 21 as a symbol of the barbaric attack on democracy and humanity. Like every year, this year too, the martyrs will be remembered through various programs against terrorism and militancy.

In line with the central program, leaders and activists of Awami League and allied organizations across the country have also been called upon to hold anti-terrorism and militancy discussion meetings and remembrance programs.