'My feet slipping on thick blood': journalists' accounts of August 21 horror
The gruesome grenade attack on an Awami League rally, apparently aimed at killing AL President Sheikh Hasina. was a turning point in the political history of Bangladesh.
A number of witnesses while talking to BSS described the incident of how criminals backed by the then BNP-Jamaat leaders carried out 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.
A makeshift stage was built using a truck for the Awami League rally protesting the murders of some party leaders and militant acts and unabated corruption during the then BNP-Jamaat regime.
"When Sheikh Hasina was about to finish her speech chanting the slogans of '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, Sheikh Hasina stood for a while on the stage. Within seconds, the first grenade was hurled and we heard something going off there," Gorky said, adding that at first, they could not understand what was happening.
"All of a sudden we found that many people were lying on the ground as they were injured by grenade splinters," said Gorky, now senior photographer of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
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 her, he said.
When the grenade attacks stopped for a while, AL leaders and workers cordoned off Hasina and took her towards her bulletproof jeep.
As she was approaching the jeep, criminals opened fire targeting the car, leaving one of the security officials, Mahbub, dead on the spot.
However, the driver of the vehicle was able to hurriedly take Hasina to a safer place from the scene, Gorky noted.
Amid the screams of injured persons at the scene, police fired teargas and rubber bullets and charged batons on the crowd exposing an example of extremely cruel behaviour 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, probably named Mosharraf, and one my colleagues rescued me from the spot and took me to hospital," he recalled.
At first Gorky was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors denied treatment as the hospital authorities had an order not to provide treatment to injured persons. Later, he took treatment at a private hospital. Hasina later helped him a lot, ensuring his treatment.
He demanded execution of the court verdict in the cases lodged in the ghastly grenade attack to punish all killers and perpetrators of the attack.
Anisur Rahman, then a senior photographer of English daily The Daily Star, was right behind Ivy Rahman when grenades were hurled on 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 [Chowdhury] told Ivy Rahman to get down from the truck for the procession after the rally," he said.
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 slogan, Anis heard a loud explosion, he said. "I was trying to find out from which direction the sound was coming but could not see anything because of the huge gathering around the dais."
Soon after the first explosion he heard the second one from the rear 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 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), sitting dazed by the truck," Anis said.
Frightened people were running over Ada Chacha as his lifeless body was rolling in the street, he said.
Pradip Sinharoy, then a senior reporter of the Daily Independent, said the fateful August 21 remains alive in his mind even 19 years after the barbaric incident.
"It's a pain inducing, 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 a mayhem due to the horrendous grenade attack, he said.
After wrapping up her brief speech, Sheikh Hasina was about to descend from the truck-dais at about 5:17pm when the first grenade, probably hurled from a nearby high-rise building, exploded with a big bang creating terror and panic among the rally attendants, Pradip said.
At least 13 such grenades were hurled and exploded in quick succession transforming the entire area into a battlefield as the cries and groans of those fatally injured made the air heavy.
Soon after the first blast struck like a tremor, "I found myself alone ... 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 AL workers shifting seriously injured 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 pushcarts for scarcity of ambulances and other vehicles.
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