Monday, January 22nd, 2007Investigation into the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) rally further dips into mystery following a news that quoted a commander of Assam's insurgent group Ulfa as saying their men made the attack "with the help of Bangladeshi intelligence agencies".The news released by a Bangladeshi private news agency from Guwahati said Ulfa commander Pallav Saikia confessed that his group was behind the attack on the AL rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in 2004.The new claim has created controversy and raised questions about its authenticity. It also contradicted a few previous disclosures made by the local investigators since the ...
(read more) Sunday, January 21st, 2007A commander of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) confessed his group was behind the August 21, 2004 grenade attack in Dhaka, aimed at Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, in which 20 people were killed.Pallav Saikia, the Ulfa commander, reportedly told Assam police that his group had lobbed grenades and fired rifles at an Awami League rally in the Bangladesh capital on that day, private news agency BDNews24.com said.Assam police special branch chief Khagen Sarmah told BDNews24 that Pallav confessed they attacked the rally at the "explicit instruction" of Ulfa military-wing chief Paresh Barua.Saikia, who was arrested by Assam ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 18th, 2006As the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is repeatedly seeking to know the actual status of investigation into the August 21 grenade attack case, Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar continues accusing the Awami League (AL) of non-cooperation with the probe.Sircar has even asked the IPU not to continue examining the August 2004 grenade attack case regarding the assassination attempt on Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina to let the legal proceedings go unhindered, sources said."It would not be wise to proceed with this matter any further in this forum. With heartfelt thanks in anticipation of dropping the matter," he said in his reply to ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006Opposition leader and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina said the present government will not bring the perpetrators of the August 21 grenade attack to book as it directly backed the attack to eliminate the entire AL leadership.Hasina vowed to bring the killers and their patrons to justice if her party is voted to power in the next election."The government has taken the lives of hundreds of our party leaders and workers, including 24 persons in the grenade attack on our rally on August 21, 2004 that aimed to kill me," Hasina said.She was addressing about 200 AL party activists ...
(read more) Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006Awami League (AL) yesterday commemorated the second anniversary of the gruesome August 21 grenade attack, taking a fresh vow to bring the perpetrators to book. The opposition leaders and workers stood in a two-minute silence, lit candles, placed wreaths and brought out mourning processions to match the solemnity of the occasion.As the clock struck 5.22pm, exact time of the first blast, tens of thousands of people stood up and observed silence till 5:24pm in memory of the leaders and activists perished in the blasts that rattled the entire nation.Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack on ...
(read more) Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006The parliamentary standing committee on defence ministry yesterday once again slammed the country's intelligence agencies for failure to ward off the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) rally two years ago.The blasts left at least 23 people killed and some 300 injured."We said it before that the intelligence agencies had failed to carry out their duties on that day," Committee Chairman Lt Gen (retired) Mahbubur Rahman told reporters after a meeting of the standing committee at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.Committee member and AL lawmaker Col (retired) Shawkat Ali said,"The intelligence officials should be summoned to appear ...
(read more) Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina yesterday said perpetrators of the grenade attack on the Awami League (AL) rally on August 21, 2004 are still at large even after two years because the government itself was involved in the heinous attack."The culprits of the August 21 grenade attack cannot be brought to justice under this government because the government itself was behind it," AL President Hasina said in a commemorating rally at Bangabandhu Avenue yesterday.Hasina reached Bangabandhu Avenue at 11:23am under unprecedented security measurers and placed floral wreaths at the memorial plaque built in memory of the 24 people killed ...
(read more) Monday, August 21st, 2006Two years into the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) rally on the Bangabandhu Avenue to assassinate party chief Sheikh Hasina, many questions still remain unanswered.Who plotted the attack, what was the motive behind it, who supplied the grenades, how were the same type of grenades sneaked into Dhaka Central Jail, why was the evidence destroyed deliberately, and why were two victims buried hurriedly have remained mysterious since the attack that killed 23 people and maimed and injured about 300 others.The government has not only shown lack of interest in bringing to justice those who carried out ...
(read more) Monday, August 21st, 2006The August 21 grenade attacks in 2004 took away bread-earners of several families while scores of others became crippled, lost their eyesight or born grenade splinters never to be got out.The fact that none of the perpetrators are yet to be brought before justice even two years after the gory incident only adds to their anguish."The government did not even show any sincerity to make a fair probe into the attack, let alone do us justice," grudged Mamun, son of a grenade attack victim Ada Chacha (Rafiqul Islam), a favourite among AL activists."There is no hope that this government will ...
(read more) Monday, August 21st, 2006Eminent citizens and opposition political leaders yesterday termed the August 21 grenade attack on the main opposition in the parliament as the most brutal in the country's political history. They said perpetrators of such a highly calculated and planned attack should be brought to justice to prevent a similar incident in the future.Expressing their reactions on the eve of the second anniversary of the attack, leading jurists, academics, former bureaucrats and leaders of different opposition political parties severely criticised the government for its failure to investigate properly the deadly attack which killed 24 and injured over 400.They said the attack ...
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