Hasina pays tribute to victims of Aug 21 grenade attack

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has paid tribute to the victims of the gruesome grenade attack that happened on August 21, 2004.

Around 10:30 am on Sunday, Hasina arrived at Bangabandhu Avenue to observe the 18th anniversary of the deadly assault.

She showed her respect by laying a wreath on an altar that had been created at the Bangladesh Awami League's main office.

Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of the Awami League, later joined Hasina in paying respects to the party leaders and activists who died in the attack.

On this day in 2004 during the BNP-Jamaat coalition government, this unprecedented grenade attack was carried out on a peaceful anti-terror rally of the Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital. 

The party leaders and activists formed a human shield to protect the then opposition leader and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.  

That day, Sheikh Hasina miraculously survived the infernal grenade attack. Seeing that the main target of the assassins Sheikh Hasina survived, 12 rounds were shot at her car. However, the targeted bullets could not penetrate the bulletproof vehicle carrying Bangabandhu's daughter. Immediately after the attack, Sheikh Hasina was cordoned off in a car and taken to her then residence Sudha Sadan in Dhanmondi. 

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.