Bangladesh PM says August 21 grenade attack was planned by then government

Bangladesh desk: Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said it was not possible to carry out an attack like that of August 21, 2004, had there been no direct patronage from then BNP-Jamaat government.

‘They (BNP-Jamaat govt) thought that I had been killed (in the grenade attack), but when they came to know that I didn’t die they allowed four criminals to flee the country,’ she said.

She said that the then BNP-Jamaat government assembled the terrorists and militants for carrying out such an attack and gave them a safe passage to flee abroad.

Sheikh Hasina made the allegation while addressing a discussion marking the August 21, 2004 grenade attack.

Awami League organised the event at its Bangabandhu Avenue central office. The prime minister attended the event virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban.

‘No one dared to dream that there would be grenade attack (on the rally) attempting to kill people in broad daylight,’ she said.

Recalling the barbaric carnage, Sheikh Hasina alleged that then prime minister Khaleda Zia and her government staged grenade attack as killings was their habit.

She said that Bangabandhu killers Faruq and Rashid were among those criminals while the other two were extremist Tajul and a jailer.

After the attack, she said, police lobbed teargas shells and charged baton on AL leaders and workers instead of rescuing the victims.

Hasina said that even BNP-Jamaat-backed doctors did not attend the injured AL leaders and activists at Dhaka Medical College Hospital and no patient was allowed to enter Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Medical University.