The verdicts in August 21 grenade attack cases, to be delivered 14 years after the blasts on Bangabandhu Avenue, are likely to further heat up the political landscape ahead of the national election as several BNP leaders, including the party’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman, are accused in the cases.

Security measures have been beefed up in and around the court area in old Dhaka ahead of the verdict in the two cases filed over August 21 grenade attack.

Hours ahead of delivery of the verdicts in cases filed for the grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia says law enforcers will not tolerate any kind of anarchy centring the verdict.

A total of 31 accused of August 21 grenade attack cases including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu are being shifted to a Dhaka court from Kashimpur High Security Prison in Gazipur as the court is set to deliver its verdict in the cases.

Ivy Rahman, one of the strongest voices for democracy and women’s rights the nation heard till today, was silenced forever in the carnage on August 21, 2004.

According to the charge sheet of the case Huji leader Tajuddin, leader of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad Bangladesh (Huji) supplied 15 grenades. Among the bombs, 14 were thrown at the AL rally on Aug 21, 2004. 3 were found unexploded and another one was found near the old central jail in Dhaka.

The grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 was launched targeting AL President Sheikh Hasina in an attempt to assassinate her, and left 24 dead and scores injured.

In the wake of the heinous grenade blasts launched by Islamist militants on the then opposition Awami League’s rally on August 21, 2004 that left 24 people killed and over 400 others injured, witnesses and survivors share their accounts of the day, narrating the horror they experienced as the attack unfolded.

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'.

Police will deal with an iron hand if any quarter tries to create anarchy centring the verdict of August 21 grenade attack cases -- scheduled to be delivered on October 10, said Monirul Islam, chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), yesterday.

Trial of the August 21 grenade attack cases have been completed and its verdicts are set to be delivered on October 10.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) expresses deep concern as none was held responsible for in a court of law in the August 21 grenade attack on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and killing of Shah AMS Kibria in 12 years.

A day after the gruesome grenade attack on August 21 in 2004, the then BNP government had formed a one-member inquiry

The dreadful memories of captivity still send shudder down his spine. Police tortured Joj Mia in custody to make him confess to a crime he did not commit.

Amid all those pain and grief, chaos and confusion, she asked them to hold still. "Stay quiet and don't move now. Recite Doa Yunus... If we're to die, we'll die here; if we're to survive, we'll survive this way," murmured Sheikh Hasina to those who created a human shield around her as grenades rained down on the fateful afternoon of August 21, 2004.

I was standing a few feet away from Ivy Rahman. But I didn't know when I was swept along by the crowd and discovered myself posted right behind her.

Aug 21 At 5:22pm, Islamic militant outfit Huji carries out the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka, killing 24 people and injuring 300 more. Sheikh Hasina narrowly escapes assassination.

Timeline of the August 21 carnage

It took place in broad daylight of August 21, 2004 according to a meticulously designed plan hatched by some high ranking persons of the then BNP-led government.

If you observe their activities, you would hardly believe that they are taking part in a court hearing.