“The government will take initiatives to bring everyone who was related to the August 21 grenade attack conspiracy to justice,” Mozammel said through a written statement at a discussion arranged by Bangladesh Journalists Rights’ Forum (BJRF) held at the Jatiya Press Club, to mark the 15th anniversary of the attack.
He was unable to deliver the chief guest’s address at the program due to illness, so instead written copies of it were handed out to those who attended the programme.
The Liberation War Affairs Minister sought eternal peace of the departed souls who lost their lives in the massacre.
Jatiya Press Club President Saiful Alam said the killing of The Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family had left the nation tainted.
“We demand justice for the August 15 massacre and the August 21 grenade attack as well....the soul of Bangabandhu will only find peace when there will be proper justice for these killings,” he said.
The grisly grenade attack was carried out on an anti-terrorism rally arranged by the Awami League, then the main opposition party in the country, at Bangabandhu Avenue during the BNP-Jamaat administration. The aim was plainly to kill then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina.
At least 24 leaders and activists, including the hugely influential AL women’s affairs secretary, also late President Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman, were killed and 300 others were injured in the grenade attack.
On October 10 last year, the Speedy Trial Tribunal sentenced 19 people, including then-State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and the Deputy Minister for Education Abdus Salam Pintu, to death. Meanwhile 19 others, including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, were sentenced to life in prison in two cases filed over the grenade attack.
Mohila Sramik League General Secretary Shamsunnahar Bhuiyan, Awami League leader Balaram Poddar and Jatiya Press Club General Secretary Farida Yasmin were also present at the event. BJRF President Azizul Islam Bhuiyan presided over the programme.