The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Awami League (AL) has chalked out day long programme to observe today the fourth anniversary of the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on its rally at the Bangabandhu Avenue.

The attack killed 24 people including its women's affairs secretary Ivy Rahman, and paralysed more than 200 critically.

AL president and Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and other central leaders survived the attack miraculously.

AL leaders and workers will place wreaths at a makeshift memorial plaque at the site of the bloodshed in the morning and hold obituary references.

The programmes also include offering of fateha at the grave of Ivy Rahman at the Banani graveyard and a milad in the evening at the residence of her husband and acting AL president Zillur Rahman.

The leaders have also arranged a discussion meeting as a pert of day long programme.

Talking to the New Nation AL presidium member Begum Matia Chowdhury said "We will invite all of the partners of 14 party alliance to join us in observing the sad of occasion."

The leaders and activists of Awami League (AL) maimed in August 21 grenade attack on the AL rally in 2004 in the capital are living hand to mouth, as financial support from the party has been stopped since the caretaker Government assumed power.

The policymakers of the party provided about Tk 2.5 lakh per month to at least 50 victims of the August 21 grenade attack from the party's assistance fund and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust fund.

But currently these trust funds have also been frozen.

The victims, mostly women, have been passing an agonising life with most of them having several hundred splinters embedded in their bodies and they will have to be under treatment for the rest of their life.

The victims said they used to get help from Hasina regularly but that too has stopped since the arrest of the party chief.

A central leader said, " We were giving over Tk two lakh to at least 35 maimed victims every month. But after the arrest of Sheikh Hasina, we are facing difficulties to provide money to them."

"Even if the accounts were not frozen, we could not have operated those after the detention of the leaders, as it requires the approval of the party president and general secretary and the central working committees' members," said a central leader.

The trust fund used to help at least 20 maimed victims, giving them Tk 2,000 each per month. But they returned empty handed from the trust office at Road-32 of Dhanmondi for the last several days. Many of them broke down in tears, said a trust official.

Talking to the New Nation AL presidium member Tofail Ahmed said, "The party could not provide financial support to the victims, since the party chief was behind bars for a long time. We will try to reactivate the fund after Sheikh Hasina's return home."

AL central organising secretary Aktaruzzaman said, " After 1/11 most of the accounts of the party were frozen. As a result we are facing difficulties in assisting the victims."

The victims who used to get financial assistance from the trust and the assistance funds includes Lutfunnesa Sonali, Nasima Ferdous, Rasheda Begum, Sajedul Alam Sabuj, Nusrat Jahan Rozi, Maksuda Azad, Nihar Ranjan Kar, Morjina Khatun, Rasheda Akhtar Ruma, Advocate Umme Razia Kajol, Bashir, Apurba Chandra Das and Mahbub.