Nation observes 21 Aug grenade attack anniversary

The nation is set to observe the 15th anniversary of the savage 21 August grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka with a heavy heart amid various programmes on Wednesday.

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) and its associate bodies will observe the day as the 'Grenade Attack Day' with elaborate programmes, including discussions.

The allies of the AL-led 14-party alliances socio-cultural and professional organisations also have taken different programmes to observe the day across the country.

On this day in 2004, the grisly grenade attack was carried out on an anti-terrorism rally organised by then opposition Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital during the BNP-Jamaat alliance rule, reportedly to kill then leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina.

At least 24 leaders and activists, including AL women affairs secretary and late president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman, were killed and 300 others injured in the grenade attack.

However, Sheikh Hasina fortunately escaped the attack unhurt but her hearing was affected badly.

Nearly 14 years after the gruesome grenade attack, a Dhaka court on 10 October last year sentenced 19 people, including the then BNP-led government's state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, to death.

Tarique Rahman, exiled eldest son of jailed BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and the party's current acting chairman, and 18 others were also sentenced to life in prison in the case.

On the occasion, AL and its associate bodies will place wreaths at a makeshift altar in front of the party's central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in the morning.

A discussion will be held at the city's Krishibid Institution of Bangladesh (KIB) in the afternoon chaired by AL president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina.