Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday stressed the need for expediting the implementation of the trial court’s verdict in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack case.

“Our leaders and activists, including Ivy Rahman, were brutally killed in broad daylight on August 21. The trial has been held. Its (trial court) judgment has been handed out. This verdict should be implemented soon,” she said.

The premier was addressing a discussion arranged by Bangladesh Awami League (AL) at Dhaka’s Bangabandhu Avenue, marking 19th anniversary of the August 21 grenade attack.

The grenade attack was carried out on an anti-terrorism rally organised by the then opposition AL on August 21, 2004 in front of its central office on Bangabandhu Avenue.

The gruesome attack left 24 people killed and nearly 1,000 injured. AL president and then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina luckily survived, but her hearing was impaired by the repeated grenade blasts. Among the dead was Awami League’s women affairs secretary and late president Zillur Rahman’s wife, Ivy Rahman.

A Dhaka court had already convicted and sentenced 49 people, including 19 to death and 19 to life imprisonment. Eleven were sentenced to different prison terms.

Read: 19th anniversary of Aug 21 grenade attack today

Eighteen of the convicted, including BNP leader Tarique Rahman, remain fugitives.

Appeals against the judgment are now being heard in the High Court.

Sheikh Hasina, while presiding over today’s discussion, said some of those convicted in the grenade attack case are now in jail but the main mastermind remains outside the country.

Without mentioning Tarique Rahman, she said that he went abroad signing a bond. “If he has courage, why doesn’t he come back? We’ve transformed the country into Digital Bangladesh. He is now talking big, taking its advantages… He should come back, if he has courage. People of Bangladesh will not spare that killer,” she said.

Recalling the grisly grenade attack, the premier said Khaleda Zia was the prime minister at the time, and the question remains what role she played at that time.

Read: It was a state-sponsored conspiracy to kill Hasina: Witness and injured Nazib recalls horror of Aug 21 carnage

She questioned why Khaleda obstructed police (from taking appropriate measures) and didn’t take any initiative to protect evidence of the attack.

“What does it prove? There is no doubt that Khaleda, Tarique and their men were completely involved in the grenade attack. It was also revealed in the investigation,” said the AL president.

Referring to the involvement of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman in the August 15 carnage and Khaleda Zia in the August 21 grenade attack, the PM said the party and Khaleda believe in the “politics of killing and annihilating a family (Bangabandhu’s family).” “They do it in broad daylight,” she said.

Referring to BNP, Hasina said they tried to erase the name of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Bangladesh and banned his historic March 7 speech, but all in vain.

She said the spirit of the Liberation War has been reinstated and people have the scope of learning the authentic history of the war.

Terming the Zia family a “family of killers,” the PM said, “The reign of killers won’t continue anymore in this country.”

She asked people of the country to remain alert so that “killers cannot exploit them, or kill them through arson and violence.”

Read: Grenade attacks and targeted killings among methods then BNP-Jamaat govt applied in their attempt to decimate AL, tweet reminds

Hasina said since Allah saved her from murder attempts time and again, she would ensure improved lives for the people of the country by serving them as long as she is alive.

She said Bangladesh has turned around and has earned dignity on the global stage. “We’ll move forward upholding this dignity. Today our promise is that we’ll take Bangladesh forward accordingly,” she said.

The premier said killers, thieves, arms haulers, money launderers, and bribe takers should not be allowed to play games with the fate of the people anymore.

“I want every person of this country to demonstrate their hatred towards the killers,” she said.

A one-minute silence was observed in memory of the victims of the August 15, 1975 carnage, the November 3, 1975 jail killings, and August 21, 2004 grenade attack before offering prayers for the salvation of the departed souls.

The PM placed a wreath at the monument on the AL office premises at Bangabandhu Avenue to pay tribute to the victims of the August 21 grenade attack.

Flanked by senior AL leaders, Sheikh Hasina then placed another wreath at the monument on behalf of her party.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader delivered the opening speech.