Dhaka, Sep 4 (IANS) Bangladesh’s Awami League on Thursday condemned the acquittal of 49 accused by the country’s apex court in the brutal 2004 grenade attack, describing it as a horrific precedent of impunity.

Local media reported that the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the 2024 High Court’s ruling that acquitted all 49 accused, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and former state minister Lutfozzaman Babar.

The grenade attack on August 21, 2004, carried out during the coalition government of BNP and radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, targetted an Awami League rally led by then leader of opposition Sheikh Hasina at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka, killing 24 people and injuring hundreds.

Slamming the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, the Awami League alleged that by acquitting the perpetrators of the brutal August 21 massacre, the Yunus regime has proven that they serve not the people of Bangladesh but “foreign masters”. It stated that to maintain their blood-stained grip on power, the interim government has buried justice, making its eventual downfall inevitable.

“Acquitting the killers of such a public massacre means legitimising the politics of murder. The question arises: if even the perpetrators of an open grenade attack go unpunished, then where lies the safety of ordinary lives? This verdict makes it clear that the illegitimate Yunus government and illegally appointed judges have protected the killers only out of gratitude,” read a statement issued by the Awami League.

“This ruling is not just against the Awami League; it is a dreadful conspiracy against the spirit of the Liberation War, against democracy, and against justice. The nation now witnesses that killers, extremists, war criminals, and anti-independence forces are once again finding safe shelter under the shadow of the state,” the statement added.

Calling it the most brutal political massacre in the history of independent Bangladesh, the Awami League said that the “state-sponsored” attack killed 24 party leaders and activists, including women leader Ivy Rahman, while hundreds were injured. It added that the party’s President, Hasina, miraculously escaped death during the attack.

“But history bears witness that no unjust verdict is ever permanent. In the people’s court, the killers, their masterminds, and their protectors will be tried. The people of Bengal declare in one voice – We do not want the acquittal of killers; we want Yunus brought to justice,” the party asserted..

According to the Awami League, the attack was orchestrated under the blueprint of Tarique, son of then Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, along with war criminals and Jamaat leaders Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, then State Minister for Home Affairs Babar, BNP leader and former Deputy Minister Abdus Salam Pintu, militant leader Mufti Hannan, and other anti-Liberation reactionary groups.

–IANS

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