Aug 21, 2004: What happened?

Assassination attempt on Hasina

Awami League President and the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped a grisly assassination attempt on August 21, 2004. The Awami League president was just coming down from a makeshift stage set up on a truck around 5:22pm after addressing a crowd of around 25,000 supporters protesting the recent Sylhet blasts with a call 'to end the rule of the government that inspires bomb attacks'.

All the hell broke loose

It was not more than three seconds after Hasina finished her speech pronouncing 'Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu' when a grenade blasted two yards from the dais and what followed was a grenade rain.

As the grenades rained in from the sky, Hasina ducked on the truck and scores of supporters created a shield over her. The grenades missed the truck and landed on either side. Hasina was then huddled into bulletproof sports utility vehicle (SUV), as her security personnel fired blank to clear the way, and wheeled her away through thick smokes under police escort.

As top leaders including Suranjit, Ivy, Zafarullah, Razzak, Rahmatullah and Sultan Mohammad Mansur were caught in the midst of fleeing supporters, the area reverberated with more bomb blasts.

24 killed, 400 injured

At least 24 people were killed and more than 400 others were injured, many of them maimed forever.

Ivy Rahman, former president of Bangladesh Mahila Awami League and wife of late President Zillur Rahman, received grievous injuries during the grenade attack on the AL rally at Bangabandhu Avenue. She succumbed to her injuries on August 24.

Presidium Members Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta, Kazi Zafarullah, Mohammad Nasim, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Sahara Khatun, Hasina's guman Salim and Nazrul Islam Babu were also seriously wounded in the attack.

A total of 13 explosions ripped through the rally premises within a spell of one to one and half minutes. It became a ghastly scene of disjointed limbs and blood. People smeared with blood lay groaning and screaming for help. But nobody dared to come to their rescue. Billowing smoke, cries of the wounded and people rushing to escape their deaths changed the landscape in moments.

About 20 minutes later, some people gathered on the spot, but were first too 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.

While Hasina was leaving on her SUV, grenades continued to rip through the rally and gunshots were heard.

Scenario of Bangabandhu Avenue

Thunderous sounds of explosion, groans of the wounded, rush of leaders and activists trying to escape still bleeding transformed the whole area into a scene of a horror film.

The central leaders started getting down of the truck with blood smeared dresses. Many, yet to comprehend what was actually happening, rushed to the party office.

Violent protest

After they recovered from the primary shock, the AL activists burst into mad rage. It was a scene of tears, protests, chaos and confusion. Some were crying standing by the injured, some torched vehicles in protest and some tried to pick their way out of the clouds of smoke and dust.

The heart of Dhaka including Bangabandhu Avenue, the scene of a series of near-simultaneous bomb explosions in a rally of the Awami League (AL), matched the set for a post-apocalyptic movie in the wake of the attacks in the evening.

Rescue operations and agitations were going on simultaneously. The activists were chanting 'Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu' while rescuing their party comrades.

The Bangabandhu Avenue headquarters of the main opposition reverberated with the sobs of the leaders and workers of the party. Some of the injured groaned sitting on congealed blood as fellow activists attended to them. Some whisked the injured to hospitals by rickshaw, motorcycle or even carts while some stared at the scene with utter disbelief.

Angry protesters 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 Majar, General Post Office and Gulistan areas.

The burnt and damaged vehicles included two double-deckers including a Volvo bus, private cars and motorcycles. Angry people also smashed windows of more than 200 vehicles in the city heart and other parts of Dhaka, spreading panic among the common man.

Some tried to run away from their attacked vehicles, but were caught in the run of confusion as hundreds of stranded vehicles closed all roads.

The roads and streets on Bangabandhu Avenue and in Gulistan, Motijheel, Shapla Chattar, Purana Paltan, Bijoynagar and Zero Point were littered with shards of broken glass.

Police fired scores of teargas canisters and charged baton to bring the situation under control. Paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (now BGB) were deployed on Bangabandhu Avenue at about 7:15pm.

Yet another grenade explodes

Following the first series of grenade blasts at 5:22pm, another grenade went off at 6:27pm amid the rescue operations and police presence in the alleyway opposite the AL office. Police said the grenade might have exploded due to the blaze of an alighted vehicle nearby but the AL activists alleged that the grenade was hurled from 'City Bhaban'.

Soon after, Bangabandhu Avenue was mostly deserted as two more live grenades were found lying amid strewn shoes and clothes opposite the AL office.

Police narratives

"Whoever be attackers, it is certain that Sheikh Hasina was their target," said on-duty police officials seeking anonymity.

All out efforts to assassinate Hasina

Though Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the grenade attacks, the perpetrators tried out all options to assassinate her. The unknown assailants fired seven bullets at the bulletproof sports utility vehicle (SUV) that Hasina boarded immediately after the blasts. A bullet also 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.

Three-layered bulletproof Mercedes Benz saved her life.

Horror descends on trauma wards

Thousands of distraught relatives and party activists thronged the city hospitals to see if their near and dear ones are 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.

Most of the injured were however moved to other hospitals as the hospital could not accommodate them.

A long line of people stretched to the mortuary and ward No. 32 where the injured were being treated, blocking the walkway.

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.

Hasina blames govt, asks it to quit

Sheikh Hasina blamed the BNP-led coalition government 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.

The AL chief demanded immediate resignation of the government, saying such bomb blast one after another across the country could no more be tolerated.

"According to the information I have received so far from the medical [Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH)], 16 Awami League leaders and workers have died and Ivy Rahman [a frontline leader of AL's women wing] is fighting for her life," Hasina told the BBC Radio.

She also alleged the injured were not getting proper treatment at the DMCH and the government was indifferent to the violence.

The opposition leader lambasted the government for its failure to nab the criminals behind the bomb attacks that had been taking place across the country after it had taken over.

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.

On when her party would pacify its angry supporters on protest across the country, she said, "It is only natural that people will protest across the country, as many lives were lost in the attack."

On the party's next course of action, Hasina said the AL Central Working Committee would meet soon to decide on it.

"How can we take a decision on agitation now, when most of our leaders are either injured or dead by the bomb attacks," she asked.