August 21st: State-sponsored organized crime

Opinion

Every year, August 21st comes. A question comes to mind. Why was there a grenade attack on Bangabandhu’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina? Why such atrocity? From a political perspective, this is definitely a continuation of the assassination of Bangabandhu on August 15, 1975.

The 2004 grenade attack was planned to kill Bangabandhu’s daughter, who survived in 1975, along with the entire leadership of her party. Sheikh Hasina survived, but 24 people were killed in the attack that day.

Such an attack to wipe out the opposition party in parliament under state sponsorship is rare in history. BNP was in power and they must take responsibility. The reason is very clear – the police have attacked the people who were attacked from the beginning, the BNP-controlled doctors did not treat the injured in the hospital, the evidence and evidence were destroyed as soon as possible and the drama of false witnesses and judges was played out in the judicial process to hide the murderers.

After winning the 2001 elections, the Jamaat-BNP alliance staged a nationwide rape festival, tortured minorities for months, and attacked the homes of Awami League leaders and activists, driving them out of their respective areas.

The entire regime was anarchic. One terrorist and violent incident after another was taking place. However, the grenade attack on August 21, 2004, which destroyed the entire central leadership of her party, including the then opposition leader in the National Assembly, is unparalleled.

We have been talking about political corruption for a long time. But the politicization of corruption became institutionalized in 2001. Let’s go back to what happened that day, Saturday afternoon, August 21, 2004.

Senior leaders had gathered in front of the Awami League office on Bangabandhu Avenue for a rally. The party chief and then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina was the chief guest at the rally. As soon as the leader finished her speech, there was a sudden loud noise.

According to the journalists, more than 12 grenades exploded. Several more grenades remained unexploded. 23 activists died instantly.

Women’s Awami League President Ivy Rahman died after fighting for several days after being seriously injured. Sheikh Hasina survived because all the leaders on stage protected her by creating human shields. These were not ordinary grenades. They were Arges grenades that the army uses in war.

As I said before, the BNP is responsible for this attack. After the attack, the streets were soaked in blood, dismembered bodies, and limbs were scattered everywhere. Shopkeepers and ordinary people from the area rushed to help. But the police?

The police fired tear gas and beat the public with sticks to prevent the injured and dead from being taken to the hospital. The nationalist doctors on duty at the hospital fled without treating the injured.

The government tried to quickly remove the blood stains by calling the fire service and spraying water. And Sheikh Hasina was shot in her car while leaving the scene in the presence of the police. All this proves that the police and administration were working to implement a state and party plan.

The investigation did not go that way. However, analyzing the news that has come out in the media, it is seen in the statements of the people who participated in the attack that Mufti Hannan, the leader of the militant organization Harkatul Jihad al-Islami Bangladesh or HuJI, was the main architect of this attack. And he held a meeting at the official residence of BNP leader and then deputy minister Abdus Salam to do all this.

Hannan was supported by the BNP’s top leadership and intelligence agencies. The Home Ministry, NSI, CID and every department of the police tried to take the investigation of the August 21 grenade attack into a different direction, on the advice of high-level Khaleda Zia’s government.

Where did the Jamaat-BNP government of the time try to destroy the judicial process by bringing in an innocent judge, Miah, and spending state money on him?

On August 15, 1975, the defeated forces of 1971 killed the architect of independence, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu, along with his family, thus destroying all the achievements of Bangladesh’s Liberation War. Bangabandhu’s daughter came to power after twenty-one years and tried to revive the spirit of the Liberation War in 1996.

The Jamaat-controlled BNP, which came to power in 2001, implemented the most violent political programs like the August 21, 2004, in order to bring about another 1975. The BNP itself gave birth to such a political belief.

There is no political compromise with those who can cause incidents like August 21. Such an idea has been created within the Awami League. And for this reason, it can be said that the August 21 incident has permanently divided the politics of Bangladesh, blocking all avenues for compromise.

This was a planned corruption of politics from the center of power, from the highest echelons of the ruling party of that time. The August 21 grenade attack and massacre will remain memorable in the political history of Bengal—because it was through this incident that the political culture of killing, modeled on 1975, was brought back to Bangladesh.

 

-Syed Ishtiaq Reza

Media worker