Journalists' accounts on 21 August grenade attack

The gruesome grenade attack on a rally of the Awami League, apparently aimed at killing Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina was a turning point in the political history of Bangladesh.

A number of witnesses while talking to BSS described the incident and how the criminals backed by the then BNP-Jamaat leaders occurred the attack 19 years ago in broad daylight.

SM Gorky, who was the chief photojournalist at Bangla daily Jugantar, witnessed how the gruesome grenade attack unfolded on August 21 in 2004 in front of his eyes.

A makeshift stage was built using a truck for the Awami League's rally protesting the murders of some party leaders and militant acts and unabated corruption taken place during the then BNP-Jamaat regime.

"When Sheikh Hasina was about to finish her speech chanting slogans "Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu" and wanted to get down from the dais, some photojournalists requested her to turn towards them for better snaps," said Gorky.

At the request of the photojournalists Sheikh Hasina stood for a while on the stage to take photos. Within seconds, the first grenade was hurled and we heard something going off there," Gorky said adding that at first we could not understand what was happening."

All of a sudden we found that many people were lying on the ground as injured by grenade splinters, Gorky, now senior photographer of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said.

Immediately after several explosions, the AL Central leaders including Mohammad Hanif, Mofajjal Hossain Chowdhury Maya and Sheikh Hasina's bodyguard Mahbub immediately formed a human shield to save Sheikh Hasina, he said.

When the grenade attacks stopped for a while, AL leaders and workers cordoned off Sheikh Hasina and took her towards her bulletproof jeep.

As Sheikh Hasina was approaching her jeep, the criminals opened fire targeting the car leaving one of the security officials Mahbub killed on the spot.

However, the driver of the vehicle could have hurriedly able to take her to a safer place from the scene, he noted.

Amidst the screaming of injured persons at the scene, police fired teargases and rubber bullets and charged batons at the crowd exposing an example of the extremely cruel behaviours of the then administration.  "It was a horrific situation there," he said.

"I also felt sick and got injured in the attack. I still have splinters in my body. An SI named probably Mosharraf and one of my colleagues rescued me from the spot and took me to the hospital," he recalled.

At first, Gorky was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors denied providing treatment to him as the hospital authorities had an order not to provide treatment to the injured persons. Later, he took treated at a private hospital. Sheikh Hasina later helped him a lot personally with ensuring treatment.

He demanded the execution of the court verdict in the cases lodged in a ghastly grenade attack to punish all killers and perpetrators of the attack.

Anisur Rahman, the then a senior photographer for English daily The Daily Star, was right behind Ivy Rahman when grenades were hurled at the truck-turned-dais at the Awami League rally.

Anis, who narrowly escaped the attack, revisited the fateful afternoon saying, "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."

"To take the best shot I tried to get into the truck from where Sheikh Hasina was speaking. But the place was so packed with leaders and workers that I could not move," he said.

"When Sheikh Hasina started her speech I raised my camera and started clicking over Ivy Apa's head. A few minutes later Matia told Ivy Rahman to get down from the truck for the procession scheduled to bring out after the rally," he said.

Sheikh Hasina delivered a short speech of not more than 10 to 12 minutes. "I took the last shot as she concluded with 'Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu', Anis said.

But before finishing her (Sheikh Hasina) slogan, Anis heard a loud explosion, he said adding, "I was trying to find out from which direction the sound was coming but could not see anything because of huge gathering around the dais."

Soon after the first explosion he heard the second one from the backside of the truck about six feet from him. This time he saw the women who were standing there suddenly collapse.

After a series of explosions men and women were lying on the street in pools of blood. Their limbs were torn apart. The impact of the grenade had shredded their clothes.

"My heart was beating so fast that I could hardly breathe. My knees felt weak. And then I noticed a blood-stained Ivy Apa slumped in a heap on the road in front of me," he recalled.

Immediately he raised his camera and took a snap of Ivy's crumpled figure. "Then I started running, my feet slipping on thick blood flowing on the street. Thousands were running to escape like me," he said.

More grenades were raining down on the crowd. "I don't know how many grenades were hurled that day but I can recall at least five blasts. The last one was near the Awami League office entrance where among others Suranjit Sengupta was standing," Anis said.

There were people lying in front of the AL office. Their blood-soaked bodies were shredded by grenade splinters. The injured persons were silently trying to say something, but they had no voice.

They just opened and closed their mouths but no words came out. They were clutching at the air with their hands, calling for help.

"I saw Suranjit Sengupta standing there with a stunned look. His body was soaked in blood streaming down his face," he said.

"Then I started running towards Ramna Bhaban. As I crossed the road I saw Ada Chacha, the old tea vendor who used to sell raw tea mixed with Ada (ginger, hence his name), sitting dazed by the truck," Anis said.

Frightening people were running over Ada Chaha as his lifeless body was rolling over the street, he said.

Pradip Sinharoy, then a senior reporter of the Daily Independent, said the fateful day August 21 remained still alive in his mind even 19 years after the barbaric incident.

"It's a pain-striking, horrible and utterly frustrating day in my 23-year career in journalism," he added.

On that day people of all strata, particularly leaders and workers of the opposition AL and its associate bodies as well as journalists, witnessed mayhem that occurred due to a horrendous grenade attack, he said.

After wrapping up her nearly 13-minute brief speech, Sheikh Hasina was about to descend from the truck dais at about 5-17 pm when the first grenade probably hurled from a nearby high-rise building blasted with a big bang creating terror and panic among the rally attendants, Pradip said.

At least 13 such grenades hurled and exploded in quick succession transforming the entire area seemingly into a battlefield as the hue and cry and groins of those fatally injured made the air heavy there.

Soon after the first blast like a tremor-struck, I found myself alone in the ocean as those who were on the first floor of Ramna Bhaban. Then a sense of uncertainty, fear and panic gripped me as a shivering cold sweat had been flowing from my head to the lower limbs, Pradip recalled.

"After a while, a generous shop owner, who was hurriedly rolling down his shutters on the first floor, gave me shelter in his shop seeing a notepad and pen in my hands," he said.

Pradip said he saw virtually shattered AL workers had been shifting seriously and fatally injured AL leaders like Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta, Mohammad Hanif, Prof Abu Sayeed, Obaidul Quader, AFM Bahauddin Nasim and many others to public and private hospitals on cycle-vans and push carts from the spot for scarce of ambulances and other vehicles.

"It was a heart-breaking scene witnessing that Dhaka City AL leader Rafiqul Islam popularly known as Ada Chacha to the reporters was lying fatally injured in a pool of blood on the verandah of Salimabad Bhaban. He succumbed to his fatal injuries," he said.