Today marks the 21st anniversary of the gruesome 21 August 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue, now renamed as Shaheed Abrar Fahad Avenue.
At least 24 people, including Awami League's women affairs secretary and late President Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman, were killed. Three hundred others were also injured.
Sheikh Hasina, the then leader of the opposition and who subsequently became the ruler of the country for 15 years before she resigned and fled in the face of a mass uprising last year, was present at the rally. She suffered hearing loss in the attack.
In 2018, a Dhaka court sentenced 19 people, including the then BNP government's state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, to death in the grenade attack case.
Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and the party's acting chairman, and 18 others were sentenced to life in prison for their involvement.
On 1 December 2024, the High Court acquitted Tarique, Babar and all others convicted in two cases – one for murder and another under the Explosive Substances Act – filed over the grenade attack.
A bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is holding hearings on appeals filed against the HC verdict.
Among those killed in the grenade attack were: the then opposition leader's personal security guard Lance Corporal (retd) Mahbubur Rashid, Abul Kalam Azad, Rezina Begum, Nasir Uddin Sardar, Atique Sarkar, Abdul Kuddus Patwari, Aminul Islam Moazzem, Belal Hossain, Mamun Mridha, Ratan Shikdar, Liton Munshi, Hasina Mamtaz Reena, Sufia Begum, Rafiqul Islam (Ada Chacha), Mostaque Ahmed Sentu, Md Hanif, Abul Kashem, Zahed Ali, Momen Ali, M Shamsuddin and Ishaque Miah.
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