“We must say the incident of August 21 is a tragic one. Whoever carried it out they were wicked and criminals,” said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

He said, “Through implicating Tarique Rahman in that incident, the ruling party has exposed it was their masterplan and Sheikh Hasina knew about it.”

Rizvi came up with the remarks while speaking at a discussion arranged by Dhaka district unit BNP at its Nayapaltan central office in memory of its former president Abdul Mannan.

He said though Tarique’s name was not there in the charge-sheet of August-21 case placed during the army-backed caretaker government, the current government implicated him in the case by ‘using’ the court and law enforcers.

The BNP leader claimed that Traique’s name was included in the supplementary chargesheet by the Awami League government out of political vengeance.

"The mystery of the incident still remains uncracked. It’ll be revealed only when a truly democratic government comes to power. If a proper investigation can be conducted, it’ll become clear that the incident was part of a masterplan of Sheikh Hasina.”

The nation on Friday observed with heavy heart the 16th anniversary of the gruesome grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004 when the BNP-Jamaat alliance was in power.

Then opposition leader and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was the main target.

At least 24 leaders and activists of the party, including its women affairs secretary and late President Zillur Rahman’s wife Ivy Rahman, were killed and 300 others injured. Hasina narrowly escaped the attack but her hearing was badly impaired.

A Dhaka court on October 10, 2018 sentenced 19 people, including the then BNP-led government’s state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar to death. Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, and 18 others were also sentenced to life imprisonment.

Also read: Aug 21 was a ‘political plot’ to bury BNP leadership: Gayeshwar