August 21 carnage: Living with pain and trauma (video)

At least 300 leaders and activists of Awami League barely escaped with their lives in the grenade attack which killed 24 people in a party rally at Bangabandhu Avenue rally in Dhaka on August 21, 2004.

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A large number of the August 21 attack survivors never managed to come back to normal life as they still carry the injuries and scars inflicted in the blast.
"I still cry out in my sleep hearing the sound of that blast," said Rashida Akhter Ruma, an activist of AL women's wing in a video interview which was made available on You Tube, whose body was scarred by the splinters in the grenade attack.

Also WATCH: Grenade attack on AL rally in Aug 21, 2004

The bottom part of her right foot was burnt in the attack. She, a survivor, said, "My face and belly swell in regular intervals."
Raisul Alam, a supporter of Dhaka city unit AL, is suffering from diseases due to splinters in his body. "It hurts all the time and I have to take hot water therapy when it becomes unbearable," Alam said in the interview.

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"My kidney got affected by pain killer tablets which I used to take and now I cannot take the medicine anymore," he said.  
Another survivor, Nazim, an activist who was injured in his abdomen, said he had to endure pain in the winter and in the summer, his skin bleeds due to itching.
"Those who stay by me only can tell how I suffer," said another activist Mahmuda said in tears.  I cannot lie on a bed, cannot sleep at night, she added.