Bangladesh Muktijoddha Manch holds anti-Pakistan protest against 2004 Dhaka grenade attack

Bangladesh Muktijoddha Manch protested in front of the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka in memory of people who lost their lives in the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack. Marking 17 years of the incident, people expressed their anger against Pakistan’s inability to deliver justice to those who lost their lives in the 2004 attack in Dhaka; the attack was targeted at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Bangladesh Muktijoddha Manch is a platform of descendants of freedom fighters comprised of mostly Chhatra League members. 

As per media reports, the Bangladesh High Court is expected to begin hearings on the death referrals and appeals of the convicts in the two cases registered over the grenade attack on an Awami League demonstration in Dhaka on August 21, 2004, that claimed the lives of 24 people.

2004 Dhaka grenade attack 

On 21 August 2004, 24 people lost their lives, and more than 300 got injured in Dhaka in a grenade attack perpetrated by the Pakistani conspirators. The attack took place at an anti-terrorism rally organised by Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue. The attacks targeted Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, who was the opposition leader back then; the attack was carried out at 5.22 PM after Sheikh Hasina had finished addressing a crowd of 20,000 people from the back of a truck. Hasina was injured in the attack. The conspirators have used hand grenades in the attack. Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the Awami League, was condemning blasts against the party's workers in Sylhet at a public meeting on Bangabandhu Avenue during her address when the grenade attack occurred.

A gathering of 20,000 people attended the demonstration. As Hasina ended her address, 13 grenades were fired into the audience from neighbouring buildings' rooftops, killing at least 16 people on the spot, with the death toll rising to 24 later. More than 500 people were injured as a result of the explosion. Hasina's bodyguard, Mahbubur Rahman, was killed, as was Awami League Women's Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman, who died from her injuries three days later.

Image Credit: ANI