A dark day in history
The month of August for us is laced with two most painful events in history. It is Providential that the aim of the perpetrators of the grenade attack 13 years ago on August 21, to take out the entire top leadership of the Awami League, was not successful. But the attack nonetheless took 24 lives and caused severe injuries to several hundred people. Among the dead was the wife of the then secretary general of the party, later the president of Bangladesh.
While we commiserate with the kins of the killed and the wounded, there are two aspects that we would like to flag here. First, the attempt on the life of Sheikh Hasina and the AL leadership, and secondly, the attempt to kill the case by a deliberately flawed investigation to hide the facts.
As far as the investigation is concerned, we recall with horror the total lack of sincerity on the part of the government to find out the truth and catch the real culprits. It was regrettable to see how the state machinery was used to spoil the case by throwing up red herrings including the Joj Mia saga. We do not know how service grenades came to be in the possession of the perpetrators. Evidence that should have been preserved and the integrity of the scene of occurrence were destroyed in a hurry; and that can lead to only one surmise—the administration had something to hide.
We hope that such instances would never be repeated. But for that to happen the state must find out all those behind the attempt on Sheikh Hasina's life and bring them to justice as well. We hope the trial, which we understand is in the closing stages, would be able to get to the bottom of the matter and the truth and the identity of the planners would be revealed.
Comments