The 16th anniversary of the gruesome grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) anti-terrorism rally in the capital on August 21, 2004 is being observed today (Friday).

The gruesome grenade attack was carried out at an anti-terrorism rally of Awami League (AL) on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21, 2004 aiming to bankrupt the party leadership during the BNP-Jamaat alliance government.

With the grace of the Almighty, the then opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other front ranking AL leaders narrowly escaped the carnage.

But, 24 people including the then Women Affairs Secretary of Awami League and wife of late President Zillur Rahman were killed and over 500 others injured in the attack and many of them became crippled for life.

Those others killed in the barbaric grenade attack included 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.

Prominent among those suffered serious splinter injuries included Sheikh Hasina, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta, Obaidul Quader, Advocate Sahara Khatun, Mohammad Hanif, Prof Abu Sayeed, and AFM Bahauddin Nasim.

Marking the anniversary, the ruling AL, its front and associate bodies and its left-leaning allies, and other political parties, social-cultural and professional organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes across the country, maintaining health guidelines in wake of the COVID-19 situation.

The nation’s long wait seeking justice of the brutal grenade attack that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 500 finally ended as a special court pronounced the verdict of a case filed over the attack on October 10, 2018.

The court awarded death sentence to 19 people including former Home Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar and life imprisonment to 19 including ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s fugitive son Tarique Rahman in connection with the grenade attack.

With the verdict pronounced by Dhaka’s 1st Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Shahed Nur Uddin, the nation was freed from stigma of committing most shocking crime in the political history.

Later, the lower court on November 27, 2018, sent a 37,385-page case document including the judgment to the High Court for further proceedings.