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‘Aug 21 grenade attack was planned in Pakistan’
Dipu Sarwar
Published : 01:28, Oct 09, 2018 | Updated : 01:28, Oct 09, 2018
Save to Facebook
The 2004 attack on an Awami League rally to eliminate the-then opposition leader and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was planned in Pakistan-administered Kashmir by militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).
With help from political allies as well as ideological allies, like Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI, B), in Bangladesh, it planed the attack and implemented it.
Twenty-four people were killed in the attack on Aug 21 that year at Dhaka’s Bangabandhu Avenue. If the attack was fully successful, most of the Awami League policymakers, including the party chief, would have died.
Formed in 1989, Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) is considered the largest guerrilla organisation active in Indian-administered Kashmir.
It is also considered to be the only militant group led by and composed of mostly ethnic Kashmiris from Indian-administered Kashmir.
It’s operative Pakistani national Abdul Majed Butt alias Yusuf Butt is one of the 52 people charged in the two cases over the attack — one over the killings and the other under the Explosives Act.
Butt, who speaks fluent Bangla and even had married a Bangladeshi woman, was sent to Bangladesh in 2000 to build a safe home in Bangladesh for Pakistani terrorists.
He was also responsible for supplying arms and ammunitions to Indian-administered Kashmir through Bangladesh.
The grenades used in the attack on the Awami League rally was part of one of those arms consignment, Maulana Abdus Salam, one of the founders of HuJI,B who is also charged for the attack, told investigators.
The son of Sheikh Mazhar Ali of Bogura, madrasa-educated Salam went to Pakistan in 1984 for higher studies before travelling to Afghanistan to raise arms against the Soviet invasion.
The Dawra Hadith-graduate from Lahore’s Jamia Ashrafia Madrasa was arrested on Nov 1, 2009 over the grenade attack on the Awami League rally.
“I returned in 1989, when we launched Harkatul Jihad (HuJI, B). Between 1993 and 1996, we operated with the help of the then-administrations,” Salam told in his confessional statement.
HuJI, B’s first public event was held on Apr 25, 1992, with a rally. Donning Afghani attires, its activists raised slogans identifying them as ‘Mujahid-e Afghan’ (Afghan war veterans) and calling for jihad.
Five days later, on Apr 30, it held a media briefing at the National Press Club, where it unveiled plans for ‘religion-based nationalism’ and pledged introducing Islamic laws.
“After the Awami League came to power in 1996, our operatives were arrested from the Lalkhan Bazar madrasa (Chattogram) as well as 41 of our jihadists were held from the camp in Ukhiya (Cox’s Bazar), which led to almost a closure to our activities. Most them were sentenced to life in prison,” reads Salam’s statement.
Salam said he went to Pakistan in 1997 with his wife and children, before coming back in 2002, but a Pakistani passport bearing the name Gafur.
“I was running a girls’ madrasa in Bogura after returning. In March 2004, I had a meeting at Mohammadpur’s Sat Masjid mosque with Mufti Abdul Hannan (executed HuJI,B top leader), Maulana Tajuddin and Abdul Majed Butt. Tajuddin said it will be difficult for us to operate in Bangladesh and India if the Awami League comes in power and the only way to stop it was to eliminate Sheikh Hasina. With her out of the scene, the party will split and will never be able to come in power,” reads Salam’s confessional statement.
According to him, Tajuddin said that if the Awami League was not in power it would benefit Hizbul Mujahideen in Bangladesh and India as well as other organisations.
“Tajuddin said that he and Majed Butt will supply the grenades and arms. He also said his brother, the then-deputy minister at the BNP-Jamaat administration, assured him of all kinds of cooperation,” Salam said in the statement.
In May 2004, Salam went to Pakistan and returned a few days after the Aug 21 attack. “I had gone for raising funds for my madrasa.”
Salam said after the 2005 JMB series blasts, the police started to check his background.
“It’s then I got in touch with Khelafat Majslih leader Kazi Azizul Haque, who was an old acquaintance. Later, we went to meet the DGFI (Bangladesh military intelligence) Dhaka Detachment chief Col Salam. There I was introduced with DGFI officials Lt Col Saif, Lt Commander Mizan and several others, who later maintained contacts with me.
“I used to provide them inputs on militant activities across the country. I have had meeting with the DGFI, where HuJI leaders, Sheikh Farid, Maulana Monir and Maulana Sabbir were with me. I had helped to nab Sharif Shahed Bipul, one of the perpetrators in the 2004 attack on the UK envoy. In October 2005, Mufit Hannan was arrested. He told RAB about deputy minister Pintu’s brother Taj’s involvement.”
In his statement, Salam recalled a specific day at the office of DGFI’s Lt Col Saiful Islam Joarder.
“He received a phone call and said ‘It will be a problem if Maulana Taj is sent to RAB’. He left the room after the phone call and when we came back asked me about Taj’s whereabouts. I said I do not know, but I can try to reach him.”
Salam got in touch with Taj a few days later, when they went to the DGFI’s guest house in Dhaka’s Gulshan.
“We spent the night there. The officials spoke with him. When I asked Taj why the DGFI considers him as an important person, he said ‘I have some business and there has been some problem.’ When I wanted details, Taj said, ‘We sent stuff in India and there has been problem’.
“At one point, he said, ‘there has been a problem with the money, ammunition and grenades sent to India for Hizbul Mujahideen’. Taj also told me that Majed Butt brings grenades from Chattogram and they make arrangements for sending those to India,” Salam said in the confessional statement recorded by a magistrate.
The grenades, which came from Butt were used in the Aug 21 attack on the Awami League rally, Salam said in the statement before adding that the plan to assassinate Sheikh Hasina was hatched in Pakistan-administered Kashmir by Hizbul Mujahideen.
“A meeting was held the day before the attack at residence of Deputy Minister Pintu where the then-state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babar was present, Taj told me. Taj was sent to Pakistan upon direct intervention of high ups in the government.
http://en.banglatribune.com/others/news/15513/‘Aug-21-grenade-attack-was-planned-in-Pakistan’
07:05 PM, October 08, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:36 PM, October 08, 2018
August 21 grenade attack
What happened on that day
An unexploded grenade lies amidst strewn sandals in front of the Awami League central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka on August 21, 2004. Photo: STAR
Star Online Report
In the broad daylight of August 21, 2004, Islamist militants launched a heinous grenade attack on a rally of the then opposition Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.
The attack was carried out according to a meticulously designed plan hatched by some high ranking persons of the then BNP-led government who allegedly conspired to annihilate their political rivals, including their prime target AL President Sheikh Hasina.
The plot failed as Sheikh Hasina survived the attack narrowly because some of her party leaders protected her by forming a human shield around her. However, 24 people were killed, including AL Women Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman, and over 400 were injured in the grisly attack.
How the incident unfolded
The incident took place at around 5:22pm on the day. Hasina had just ended her speech pronouncing “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu” when a grenade exploded two yards from the makeshift stage on a truck she was standing.
Sheikh Hasina was addressing an AL rally protesting the recent Sylhet blasts with a call “to end the rule of the government that inspires bomb attacks”. Around 25,000 leaders and activists of the party were present there.
A shower of grenades followed in the next one and half minutes, with a total of 13 explosions that ripped through the rally premises. Top AL leaders including Suranjit, Ivy, Zafarullah, Razzak, Rahmatullah and Sultan Mohammad Mansur were caught in the midst of fleeing supporters as the area reverberated with explosions.
Failed attempt to assassinate Hasina
Scores of party leaders and security personnel created a shield over Hasina as she ducked on the truck while the grenades missed the truck and landed on either side. She was then immediately huddled into her bulletproof sports utility vehicle (SUV), as her security personnel fired blanks to clear the way, and wheeled her away through gunfire and thick smokes.
The assailants fired seven bullets at Hasina’s bulletproof SUV. A bullet punctured the rear wheel of the vehicle and there was a large hole on the rear right side of its windshield. At least three bullets hit the right side of the front windshield, just opposite the front seat where the former prime minister sat. The three-layered bulletproof Mercedes Benz saved her life that day.
Sheikh Hasina reached her residence Sudha Sadan at around 6:00pm.
“Whoever be the attackers, it is certain that Sheikh Hasina was their target,” on-duty police officials later said seeking anonymity.
Rescue efforts and outburst after the attack
Around 15 minutes later, some people gathered on the spot, but were first shell shocked to swing into action as they had little idea about what to do. They sat by the dead and the wounded and cried. Some supporters then brought in microbuses, rickshaw-vans and minibuses and picked up the injured leaders and workers.
The premises matched the set for a post-apocalyptic movie following the attack, with blood, human entrails, blood-smeared party-flags, banners and torn sandals scattered around the premises.
Angry protesters around 6:00pm torched and threw stones to vehicles chanting slogans against the attackers. Thick black smoke soon mushroomed from about 20 burnt vehicles in Bijoynagar, Purana Paltan Crossing, Dainik Bangla Intersection, Zero Point, Bangabandhu Avenue, Golap Shah Mazar, General Post Office (GPO) and Gulistan areas. Police fired scores of teargas canisters and charged baton to bring the situation under control.
Another grenade, which did not explode during the attack, went off at 6:27pm amid rescue operations and police presence in the alleyway opposite to the AL office.
Paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh) personnel were deployed in Dhaka city later in the evening at around 7:15pm.
Rescue operations and agitations were going on simultaneously. The activists were chanting “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu” while rescuing their party comrades.
Ivy Rahman, former president of Bangladesh Mahila Awami League and wife of late President Zillur Rahman, received grievous injuries in the grenade attack. She lost both her legs in the explosion and succumbed to her injuries later on August 24.
The attack also left 23 other AL leaders and activists killed in the blasts, including AL’s Dhaka Metropolitan unit advisor Rafiqul Islam, who was much loved by all as everyone’s favourite Ada Chacha. Sheikh Hasina’s security staff chief Lance Corporal (retd) Mahbubur Rashid also died from bullet injuries while trying to save the AL president.
AL Presidium Members Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta, Kazi Zafarullah, Mohammad Nasim, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Sahara Khatun, the then Dhaka City Mayor Mohammad Hanif, Hasina’s security personnel Salim and Nazrul Islam Babu were also seriously wounded in the attack, among others.
Two more live grenades were later found lying amid strewn shoes and clothes opposite to the AL office at Bangabandhu Avenue.
Horror on trauma wards
Thousands of distraught relatives and party activists thronged the city hospitals to see if their near and dear ones were among the dead and injured.
The hospital air turned heavy with people's screams and cry for blood as the authorities struggled to cope with the rush of the injured and their relatives.
People took no more than 10 minutes to rush to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) after the first injured was taken there.
The relatives, Awami League (AL) activists, law-enforcers and journalists crowded the entrance to the Emergency Ward, as more injured were rushed there.
Over 150 injured were taken first to the DMCH. The authorities moved old patients of Ward No. 32 to other wards and made beds on the floor but still could not manage enough space for the injured.
A long line of people stretched to the mortuary and Ward No. 32 where the injured were being treated, blocking the walkway.
Most of the injured were, however, later moved to other hospitals as DMCH could not accommodate all of them.
People chased the police out of the DMCH after they were deployed there at 6:10pm to control the rush.
Police, however, were deployed again at 6:45pm to clear the walkway to the mortuary and ward No 32 and they clubbed the crowd twice.
Divided into separate groups, activists of the AL and its front organisations were shouting at the top of their voice at the DMCH, urging people to donate blood for the injured.
“Please save our brothers and sisters, donate blood,” a woman was shouting under the stairs, directing people to go to the blood centre on the first floor.
The authorities, however, did not have enough bags for the people who went to donate blood.
BNP-led coalition govt blamed for the attack, asked to quit
Sheikh Hasina blamed the then BNP-led four-party coalition government for the bomb and gun-attacks that she had narrowly escaped and demanded its immediate resignation.
“When the bombs were hurled, my leaders and workers shielded me in such a way that I could escape the attacks,” Hasina, also president of the main opposition Awami League (AL), told the BBC Bangla Service on the night August 21.
“The leaders and workers of my party saved me from the attacks at the cost of their lives,” she said in an emotion-choked voice.
Demanding immediate resignation of the government, the AL chief said such bomb blasts one after another across the country could not be tolerated anymore.
She also alleged that the government was indifferent to the violence, and lambasted the government for its failure to nab the criminals behind the bomb attacks that had been taking place across the country after the BNP-led alliance came to power.
She also condemned police for baton-charging and arresting innocent AL leaders and workers when they rushed forward to rescue the wounded from the place.
“The activities of police prove that the government masterminded the bomb attack to kill Awami League leaders and workers including myself,” Hasina argued.
https://www.thedailystar.net/august-21-carnage/news/aug-21-grenade-attack-what-happened-day-1644268
Dipu Sarwar
Published : 01:28, Oct 09, 2018 | Updated : 01:28, Oct 09, 2018
Save to Facebook
The 2004 attack on an Awami League rally to eliminate the-then opposition leader and now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was planned in Pakistan-administered Kashmir by militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).
With help from political allies as well as ideological allies, like Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI, B), in Bangladesh, it planed the attack and implemented it.
Twenty-four people were killed in the attack on Aug 21 that year at Dhaka’s Bangabandhu Avenue. If the attack was fully successful, most of the Awami League policymakers, including the party chief, would have died.
Formed in 1989, Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) is considered the largest guerrilla organisation active in Indian-administered Kashmir.
It is also considered to be the only militant group led by and composed of mostly ethnic Kashmiris from Indian-administered Kashmir.
It’s operative Pakistani national Abdul Majed Butt alias Yusuf Butt is one of the 52 people charged in the two cases over the attack — one over the killings and the other under the Explosives Act.
Butt, who speaks fluent Bangla and even had married a Bangladeshi woman, was sent to Bangladesh in 2000 to build a safe home in Bangladesh for Pakistani terrorists.
He was also responsible for supplying arms and ammunitions to Indian-administered Kashmir through Bangladesh.
The grenades used in the attack on the Awami League rally was part of one of those arms consignment, Maulana Abdus Salam, one of the founders of HuJI,B who is also charged for the attack, told investigators.
The son of Sheikh Mazhar Ali of Bogura, madrasa-educated Salam went to Pakistan in 1984 for higher studies before travelling to Afghanistan to raise arms against the Soviet invasion.
The Dawra Hadith-graduate from Lahore’s Jamia Ashrafia Madrasa was arrested on Nov 1, 2009 over the grenade attack on the Awami League rally.
“I returned in 1989, when we launched Harkatul Jihad (HuJI, B). Between 1993 and 1996, we operated with the help of the then-administrations,” Salam told in his confessional statement.
HuJI, B’s first public event was held on Apr 25, 1992, with a rally. Donning Afghani attires, its activists raised slogans identifying them as ‘Mujahid-e Afghan’ (Afghan war veterans) and calling for jihad.
Five days later, on Apr 30, it held a media briefing at the National Press Club, where it unveiled plans for ‘religion-based nationalism’ and pledged introducing Islamic laws.
“After the Awami League came to power in 1996, our operatives were arrested from the Lalkhan Bazar madrasa (Chattogram) as well as 41 of our jihadists were held from the camp in Ukhiya (Cox’s Bazar), which led to almost a closure to our activities. Most them were sentenced to life in prison,” reads Salam’s statement.
Salam said he went to Pakistan in 1997 with his wife and children, before coming back in 2002, but a Pakistani passport bearing the name Gafur.
“I was running a girls’ madrasa in Bogura after returning. In March 2004, I had a meeting at Mohammadpur’s Sat Masjid mosque with Mufti Abdul Hannan (executed HuJI,B top leader), Maulana Tajuddin and Abdul Majed Butt. Tajuddin said it will be difficult for us to operate in Bangladesh and India if the Awami League comes in power and the only way to stop it was to eliminate Sheikh Hasina. With her out of the scene, the party will split and will never be able to come in power,” reads Salam’s confessional statement.
According to him, Tajuddin said that if the Awami League was not in power it would benefit Hizbul Mujahideen in Bangladesh and India as well as other organisations.
“Tajuddin said that he and Majed Butt will supply the grenades and arms. He also said his brother, the then-deputy minister at the BNP-Jamaat administration, assured him of all kinds of cooperation,” Salam said in the statement.
In May 2004, Salam went to Pakistan and returned a few days after the Aug 21 attack. “I had gone for raising funds for my madrasa.”
Salam said after the 2005 JMB series blasts, the police started to check his background.
“It’s then I got in touch with Khelafat Majslih leader Kazi Azizul Haque, who was an old acquaintance. Later, we went to meet the DGFI (Bangladesh military intelligence) Dhaka Detachment chief Col Salam. There I was introduced with DGFI officials Lt Col Saif, Lt Commander Mizan and several others, who later maintained contacts with me.
“I used to provide them inputs on militant activities across the country. I have had meeting with the DGFI, where HuJI leaders, Sheikh Farid, Maulana Monir and Maulana Sabbir were with me. I had helped to nab Sharif Shahed Bipul, one of the perpetrators in the 2004 attack on the UK envoy. In October 2005, Mufit Hannan was arrested. He told RAB about deputy minister Pintu’s brother Taj’s involvement.”
In his statement, Salam recalled a specific day at the office of DGFI’s Lt Col Saiful Islam Joarder.
“He received a phone call and said ‘It will be a problem if Maulana Taj is sent to RAB’. He left the room after the phone call and when we came back asked me about Taj’s whereabouts. I said I do not know, but I can try to reach him.”
Salam got in touch with Taj a few days later, when they went to the DGFI’s guest house in Dhaka’s Gulshan.
“We spent the night there. The officials spoke with him. When I asked Taj why the DGFI considers him as an important person, he said ‘I have some business and there has been some problem.’ When I wanted details, Taj said, ‘We sent stuff in India and there has been problem’.
“At one point, he said, ‘there has been a problem with the money, ammunition and grenades sent to India for Hizbul Mujahideen’. Taj also told me that Majed Butt brings grenades from Chattogram and they make arrangements for sending those to India,” Salam said in the confessional statement recorded by a magistrate.
The grenades, which came from Butt were used in the Aug 21 attack on the Awami League rally, Salam said in the statement before adding that the plan to assassinate Sheikh Hasina was hatched in Pakistan-administered Kashmir by Hizbul Mujahideen.
“A meeting was held the day before the attack at residence of Deputy Minister Pintu where the then-state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babar was present, Taj told me. Taj was sent to Pakistan upon direct intervention of high ups in the government.
http://en.banglatribune.com/others/news/15513/‘Aug-21-grenade-attack-was-planned-in-Pakistan’
07:05 PM, October 08, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:36 PM, October 08, 2018
August 21 grenade attack
What happened on that day
An unexploded grenade lies amidst strewn sandals in front of the Awami League central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka on August 21, 2004. Photo: STAR
Star Online Report
In the broad daylight of August 21, 2004, Islamist militants launched a heinous grenade attack on a rally of the then opposition Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.
The attack was carried out according to a meticulously designed plan hatched by some high ranking persons of the then BNP-led government who allegedly conspired to annihilate their political rivals, including their prime target AL President Sheikh Hasina.
The plot failed as Sheikh Hasina survived the attack narrowly because some of her party leaders protected her by forming a human shield around her. However, 24 people were killed, including AL Women Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman, and over 400 were injured in the grisly attack.
How the incident unfolded
The incident took place at around 5:22pm on the day. Hasina had just ended her speech pronouncing “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu” when a grenade exploded two yards from the makeshift stage on a truck she was standing.
Sheikh Hasina was addressing an AL rally protesting the recent Sylhet blasts with a call “to end the rule of the government that inspires bomb attacks”. Around 25,000 leaders and activists of the party were present there.
A shower of grenades followed in the next one and half minutes, with a total of 13 explosions that ripped through the rally premises. Top AL leaders including Suranjit, Ivy, Zafarullah, Razzak, Rahmatullah and Sultan Mohammad Mansur were caught in the midst of fleeing supporters as the area reverberated with explosions.
Failed attempt to assassinate Hasina
Scores of party leaders and security personnel created a shield over Hasina as she ducked on the truck while the grenades missed the truck and landed on either side. She was then immediately huddled into her bulletproof sports utility vehicle (SUV), as her security personnel fired blanks to clear the way, and wheeled her away through gunfire and thick smokes.
The assailants fired seven bullets at Hasina’s bulletproof SUV. A bullet punctured the rear wheel of the vehicle and there was a large hole on the rear right side of its windshield. At least three bullets hit the right side of the front windshield, just opposite the front seat where the former prime minister sat. The three-layered bulletproof Mercedes Benz saved her life that day.
Sheikh Hasina reached her residence Sudha Sadan at around 6:00pm.
“Whoever be the attackers, it is certain that Sheikh Hasina was their target,” on-duty police officials later said seeking anonymity.
Rescue efforts and outburst after the attack
Around 15 minutes later, some people gathered on the spot, but were first shell shocked to swing into action as they had little idea about what to do. They sat by the dead and the wounded and cried. Some supporters then brought in microbuses, rickshaw-vans and minibuses and picked up the injured leaders and workers.
The premises matched the set for a post-apocalyptic movie following the attack, with blood, human entrails, blood-smeared party-flags, banners and torn sandals scattered around the premises.
Angry protesters around 6:00pm torched and threw stones to vehicles chanting slogans against the attackers. Thick black smoke soon mushroomed from about 20 burnt vehicles in Bijoynagar, Purana Paltan Crossing, Dainik Bangla Intersection, Zero Point, Bangabandhu Avenue, Golap Shah Mazar, General Post Office (GPO) and Gulistan areas. Police fired scores of teargas canisters and charged baton to bring the situation under control.
Another grenade, which did not explode during the attack, went off at 6:27pm amid rescue operations and police presence in the alleyway opposite to the AL office.
Paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (now Border Guard Bangladesh) personnel were deployed in Dhaka city later in the evening at around 7:15pm.
Rescue operations and agitations were going on simultaneously. The activists were chanting “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu” while rescuing their party comrades.
Ivy Rahman, former president of Bangladesh Mahila Awami League and wife of late President Zillur Rahman, received grievous injuries in the grenade attack. She lost both her legs in the explosion and succumbed to her injuries later on August 24.
The attack also left 23 other AL leaders and activists killed in the blasts, including AL’s Dhaka Metropolitan unit advisor Rafiqul Islam, who was much loved by all as everyone’s favourite Ada Chacha. Sheikh Hasina’s security staff chief Lance Corporal (retd) Mahbubur Rashid also died from bullet injuries while trying to save the AL president.
AL Presidium Members Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta, Kazi Zafarullah, Mohammad Nasim, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Sahara Khatun, the then Dhaka City Mayor Mohammad Hanif, Hasina’s security personnel Salim and Nazrul Islam Babu were also seriously wounded in the attack, among others.
Two more live grenades were later found lying amid strewn shoes and clothes opposite to the AL office at Bangabandhu Avenue.
Horror on trauma wards
Thousands of distraught relatives and party activists thronged the city hospitals to see if their near and dear ones were among the dead and injured.
The hospital air turned heavy with people's screams and cry for blood as the authorities struggled to cope with the rush of the injured and their relatives.
People took no more than 10 minutes to rush to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) after the first injured was taken there.
The relatives, Awami League (AL) activists, law-enforcers and journalists crowded the entrance to the Emergency Ward, as more injured were rushed there.
Over 150 injured were taken first to the DMCH. The authorities moved old patients of Ward No. 32 to other wards and made beds on the floor but still could not manage enough space for the injured.
A long line of people stretched to the mortuary and Ward No. 32 where the injured were being treated, blocking the walkway.
Most of the injured were, however, later moved to other hospitals as DMCH could not accommodate all of them.
People chased the police out of the DMCH after they were deployed there at 6:10pm to control the rush.
Police, however, were deployed again at 6:45pm to clear the walkway to the mortuary and ward No 32 and they clubbed the crowd twice.
Divided into separate groups, activists of the AL and its front organisations were shouting at the top of their voice at the DMCH, urging people to donate blood for the injured.
“Please save our brothers and sisters, donate blood,” a woman was shouting under the stairs, directing people to go to the blood centre on the first floor.
The authorities, however, did not have enough bags for the people who went to donate blood.
BNP-led coalition govt blamed for the attack, asked to quit
Sheikh Hasina blamed the then BNP-led four-party coalition government for the bomb and gun-attacks that she had narrowly escaped and demanded its immediate resignation.
“When the bombs were hurled, my leaders and workers shielded me in such a way that I could escape the attacks,” Hasina, also president of the main opposition Awami League (AL), told the BBC Bangla Service on the night August 21.
“The leaders and workers of my party saved me from the attacks at the cost of their lives,” she said in an emotion-choked voice.
Demanding immediate resignation of the government, the AL chief said such bomb blasts one after another across the country could not be tolerated anymore.
She also alleged that the government was indifferent to the violence, and lambasted the government for its failure to nab the criminals behind the bomb attacks that had been taking place across the country after the BNP-led alliance came to power.
She also condemned police for baton-charging and arresting innocent AL leaders and workers when they rushed forward to rescue the wounded from the place.
“The activities of police prove that the government masterminded the bomb attack to kill Awami League leaders and workers including myself,” Hasina argued.
https://www.thedailystar.net/august-21-carnage/news/aug-21-grenade-attack-what-happened-day-1644268
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