By IANS
Dhaka : Bangladesh’s Awami League defied emergency rules to gather outside the Dhaka Central Jail, where their leader Sheikh Hasina is detained, to hold a candlelight protest against tardy investigations into a grenade attack which killed 24 party workers three years ago.
It was on Aug 21, 2004 that a grenade attack on an Awami League rally killed 24 party activists. Hasina was fired upon as she was whisked away in a car, and escaped unhurt.
Three years later, the Awami League and its allies gathered despite a national emergency and a political ban to ask the interim government to ensure proper investigation of the carnage and punishment of the killers, New Age newspaper said Wednesday.
Awami League has blamed the then government of Khaleda Zia for lax security at the rally and then scuttling the investigations.
Relatives of the victims and party activists injured in the 2004 attack recalled the event and paid homage to those killed, placing flowers at the site of the attack.
Those killed included the party’s women affairs secretary, Ivy Rahman. Over 200 others were injured in the attacks.
The protestors outside the jail recalled that the interim government had frozen all accounts handled by Sheikh Hasina, including one for providing relief to the victims and families of the attack.
The protests took place even as the Dhaka University campus witnessed a strike and clashes between the students and the police – over a soldier thrashing a student – leading to 150 people being injured and vehicles set afire.