Aug 21 grenade attack: Bangabandhu’s killers Rasheed, Dalim were in Dhaka, says PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said Bangabandhu’s killers Colonel Rasheed and Major Dalim were in Dhaka when the horrific grenade attack was carried out to make Awami League leaderless.

“When they learnt that I didn’t die, they fled the country with the help of Khaleda Zia,” Hasina told a rally commemorating the heinous attack that killed 24 Awami League leaders and activists on this day 18 years ago.

UNB adds: “Without having any government patronisation, this kind of heinous attack could not have taken place,” the premier said. “The target was to kill me and wipe out the Awami League.” 

She said that then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia helped the two killers leave the country after the carnage, one of the worst such political violence in the history of Bangladesh.

“This is the reality. Many know that Dalim and Rashid were in Dhaka. I don’t know whether all people are aware of this or not. They have their relatives, you can know that easily,” she said.

She mentioned that when they found out that she did not die in the attack, they fled the country.

The attack left 24 people killed and about 300 injured, but Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader of the country, luckily escaped death

“Who brought them here unless the then BNP government had not taken the initiative? They came and they went away,” she said.

She apprehended that more attacks on her are being planned and she knows that she has danger in with her every step.

“Killing is the character of BNP and now we have to sit with them and provide them hospitality so that they come to the election. Why? I don’t understand. Are there no other people in Bangladesh?” she questioned.

Sheikh Hasina, chief of the Awami League, said that BNP shed crocodile tears in front of the foreigners at that time so they could cash in some benefits by faking sympathy.

She said the people of Bangladesh must choose now between the politics of terrorism and the path of development.

“The people will have to decide whether they want to return to the era of terrorism or stay firm on the current path of development,” said the premier.

A Dhaka court in 2018 sentenced 19 of the 49 suspects in the grenade attack case to death, including Lutfozzaman Babar, the state minister for home affairs under the 2001-06 BNP-Jamaat government, and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu.

Nineteen others were sentenced to life terms, including Tarique Rahman and Haris Chowdhury.

Earlier, the prime minister paid tributes to the memory of those killed in the gruesome grenade attack by laying a wreath at the makeshift memorial erected at the scene of the carnage.

She shared her pains with the relatives who lost their loved ones and also with those who have been living a painful life with injuries from grenade splinters.

A one-minute silence was observed in memory of the victims before offering prayers for the salvation of the departed souls.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader also spoke at the event.