The Bangladesh Awami League has paid deep tribute to the martyrs and expresses sympathy for the injured of the gruesome grenade attack of August 21, 2004, when at least 22 people from the party’s anti-terrorism rally were killed.
At the same time, it called upon the people of the country to unite in resisting forever the extremist communal militants and their representatives—the BNP–Jamaat and the killer-fascist Yunus clique, eternal enemies of the democratic culture of this land.
In a statement on Wednesday, the party said the unconstitutional and illegal Yunus clique usurped state power in 2024, and under their direct orders, a High Court bench delivered a farcical verdict, acquitting all convicted criminals.
“This will remain as another disgrace in the history of the nation, and just as heinous as the grenade attack itself was the shameful acquittal.”
What will happen to the convicts of the August 21 grenade attack case?
The Awami League vowed to continue the struggle against terrorism, militancy, and anti-human forces. “Under the leadership of our beloved leader Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh will be freed from the grip of illegal usurpers and will continue its march on the path of democracy, development, and peace, Insha’Allah.”
It said: “The 21 August is a horrific and disgraceful day in the political history of Bangladesh. On this day in 2004, a brutal and barbaric grenade attack was carried out at an anti-terrorism peace rally organized by the Bangladesh Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital. With the direct patronage of the then BNP–Jamaat coalition government, the main objective of this massacre was to assassinate the Awami League President and then Leader of the Opposition, Daughter of Bangabandhu, Deshratna Sheikh Hasina, in order to make the Awami League leaderless, and to destroy Bangladesh’s independence, democracy, and the spirit of the Liberation War.
“In this barbaric attack, 22 leaders and activists, including women leader Ivy Rahman, were martyred, and more than five hundred were permanently crippled. The grenades used in the attack and other evidence proved that Pakistan and their local agents were involved in this heinous incident. With the joint efforts of defeated forces of 1971, both domestic and foreign, there was an attempt to annihilate the pro-Liberation forces led by Awami League, to turn Bangladesh into a militant, failed state in line with Pakistani ideology, and to crush the democratic aspirations of the people.
“But by the infinite grace of Almighty Creator, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina narrowly survived that day, keeping alive the flame of our hope. Awami League, holding that blood debt in its heart, has continued to move the nation forward with the ideals of the Liberation War, democratic values, and the vision of development. But the illegal usurper, killer-fascist Yunus clique is also now steering Bangladesh in the same Pakistani ideological direction as the embodiment of those extremist communal militant forces.
“Immediately after that horrific grenade attack, the BNP–Jamaat coalition government tried to destroy all evidence and staged the ‘Joj Miah drama.’ Later, during the caretaker government, the case was reinvestigated and trial proceedings began. Over nearly 11 years, the court, in a fully impartial manner and in strict adherence to all principles of justice, completed the trial of the case. The court sentenced 19 people to death, 19 others, including chief planner Tarique Rahman, to life imprisonment, and 11 police and army officials to various prison terms.”
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