Saturday evening massacre

. PHOTO: STAR

We are very frightened and are feeling very helpless not knowing who were behind this heinous act, trying to destabilise our country. It is clear that a third party is involved, the motive of which is to create disorder and confusion. This incident will invariably be a setback to the development of the country. The most apparent question now is, who are they and why are they doing this?

Recently, bomb attacks have become a regular event, but the government has failed to catch a single criminal so far. It is a discredit for the government; it's about time the government undertook more constructive and focused steps. If need be, international help must be sought.

Words cannot express the extreme anguish and grief that the country is going through at the moment. A series of bomb blasts occurred in the last couple of years in different places---Dhaka, Sylhet and Khulna, to name a few---and the targets are diversified as well---journalists, political leaders & foreign diplomats. Not even one of the investigations into these bloody attacks was coplete.

The recent grenade attack on a procession of the main opposition political party Awami League(AL) shows us again how desperate and inhumane the terrorists have become. To add to it, one must say that due to the "fizzling out" of the investigations into other terrorist attacks in our country, these forces are becoming stronger as no one has been punished yet for the dastardly attacks. We condemn the assassination attempt on former PM Sheikh Hasina and demand a proper and impartial investigation into these dastardly attacks, and if necessary, an international one. There is no doubt that the forces opposed to democracy and secularism are launching these terrible attacks, one after another, and the government has not done enough to tackle them. We hope that these assassins will be brought to justice and also that the forces of intolerance and extremism will be defeated.

Aranya Syed, Dhaka,

We vehemently protest the heinous grenade attacks on the opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, who had a narrow escape, and some senior leaders and workers who gathered in a public meeting called by the party on 21 August. It left at least 18 people dead and more than 300 injured. A few days back bombs were exploded in some cinema halls in Sylhet. Some unidentified criminals are blasting bombs or grenades, one after another, in some crowded places but the law enforcing agencies are yet to find any clue of these terrorist activities. After any attack or loss of lives ,condolence and condemnation from all quarters pour in and commitments of arresting the culprits or meting out exemplary punishment are heard. Now the question is, where are we heading for? What the hell are our intelligent agencies doing ? The responsibility of resolving these chain incidents rests with the ruling party. They have to be accountable to the commoners who are now passing their days amid great uncertainty.

We demand a very high- powered probe body to unravel the truth of the mysterious incidents.

Al-Amin Mahmud, Lecturer of Sociology, SUST, Sylhet

What we witnessed on Saturday afternoon is as ugly as any US led attack on the Iraqis or Israeli savage attacks on the people of Palestine. People lying here and there with blown away limbs were repulsive sights . Why this heinous attack? What are the bombers trying to prove? What an evil patch of years we are having, where political leaders as well as common people are being killed regularly. Life must not go on like this, these should be stopped before the country becomes another Afghanistan. So many people lost their lives and those lives were priceless. Who would take the responsibility of those shattered and bereaved families? Death does come and none can deny this inevitable truth, but no one expects to die like this.

I condemn the heinous attack on the political leaders as well as innocent civilians and earnestly request the government to nab those criminals, who might lead the country towards civil war, and punish them before it is too late.

Badal Hasib, Asad Avenue, Dhaka

Television news on Monday as well as The Daily Star of Tuesday reported that so far detectives have found no "clues" about the grenade attack on the Awami League meeting. I found this strange. Weren't the unexploded grenades themselves clues? I also found it strange that the army team detonated the unexploded grenades at the site of the attack. I am not an expert on this matter, but couldn't some way be found to disable the unexploded grenades and hand them over to the police as evidence or clues? The other grenades found in Dhaka Central Jail and the Railway Hawker's Market premises have presumably not been detonated. Hopefully, these are available for investigation into the attack. Newspapers and TV both reported that (and viewers saw on TV) that the grenades were marked "ARGES" along with numbers (presumably arms codes). I found it surprising that neither print nor TV journalists offered us further information about them. One TV reporter said that the grenades were of Chinese origin and are used in the armed forces of a number of countries in the subcontinent. However, a simple internet search reveals that ARGES is the acronym of Armaturen Gesellschaft m. b. h., an Austrian company. ARGES, in fact, manufactures a number of types of grenades. The company's website shows pictures of their grenades that are exactly the same as the pictures of the unexploded grenades in Bangabandhu Avenue and in Dhaka Central Jail. The company's website has, among other things, the following description of itself and its products:

"ARGES can look back to a very long tradition in manufacturing hand grenades and components and is the leading company for producing cost-effective hand grenades with pre-formed fragments. ARGES fragmentation hand grenades show excellent fragment distribution and fragment density by using pre-formed fragments.

The fragment distribution and fragment density on 21 August at Bangabandhu Avenue lived up to its manufacturer's promises, judging from the number of casualties. Two hundred injured and eighteen killed ­ in other words, more than two entire companies (one-fourth of a battalion) of innocent civilians were put out of commission.

A Reader, On e-mail

We all are shell-shocked at the gruesome grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21 . The culprits used sophisticated grenades in their bid to assassinate Sheikh Hasina, the chief of the AL, and liquidate her party. First of all, I sympathise with the victims and their families. I was appalled at the horrific pictures . I did not see the barbaric episode of 1971, but this attack could revive the memories of the savage attacks by the Pakistani forces. I am very pessimistic that Bangladesh, my dear motherland, is going to be ruined due to political unrest. Bangladesh is yet to recover from floods. Really, our country has been plagued by retaliatory politics. I am sure a vested group is desperate to destabilise our country. Some fanatics are behind this attack. They are unleashing a reign of terror in our country with political immunity. But why is the government indifferent? The govt should keep in mind that it may boomerang on them. They should not pamper the religious zealots for political gains. The bomb attacks are very frequent in Bangladesh but the criminals go scot-free. The statement, "We are looking for satroo" by our state minister for home affairs cannot soothe us.

I urge the government to wake up from the deep slumber and break the fangs of the terrorist groups. The victims should be compensated duly and the real culprits must be brought to book without any delay to stabilise the country and minimise the worries of people. Please do not push our country to a civil war.

Molla Mohammad Shaheen, Dept of English, Dhaka University

I read with great anger and anguish the news of grenade attack on Sk. Hasina. It is not an attack against a political party, it is an attack on the democratic institution, a conspiracy against Bangladesh.

I don't know who were behind the attack. The Awami League is saying the government was behind it. The BNP will possibly come with some conspiracy theory. The bottom line is that the government must take responsibility of this attack. It's their job to ensure safety and security of all, including the opposition leaders. If there is any conspiracy, it is their job to protect the people from such conspiracies.

We want to know what the BNP has to say about this incident.

Shahid H Khandker, Toronto, Canada

The news is very disturbing. The immediate consequence of the grenade attacks was that at least 19 people died, as reported in the news media. Look at the fate of the common people, floods -- poor and common people are the sufferers, bomb and grenade attacks -- common people are dying. You can give many more examples regarding sufferings of the common people of Bangladesh. But they are the ones still putting up their selfless efforts to keep Bangladesh going. The common people are gradually being pushed back to the wall.

I am not talking from any political point of view but from my strong feelings about the fallout of political anarchy and natural calamities. Living thousands of miles away, I will feel comfortable if the government ensures free and fair investigation into the grenade attack on the AL political rally and reveals the truth.

Anynomous, On e-mail

We do not have any language to condemn this heinous attack. This is an attack on our nation, our sovereignty, our democratic institutions. It was a savage act of criminality against humanity, an act of those driven by beastly ideas. They are the enemies of the nation. They are the ones who do not want our nation to flourish. They are the ones who are working to destroy our identity as a free and democratic country. They are our common enemies. Let us forget our petty political differences. Let us open a single and united front to defeat these evil forces. I would like to request our print and electronic media to launch a movement against the terrorists through their collective, concerted and common editorials and opinions to unite our countrymen, irrespective of their party or other affiliations. We saw in the past that on some vital national issues our dailies-- English or Bangla-- ran articles in their front pages. That should be done again. Leaders of the press should come forward to have a common platform. At the same time, we urge the leaders of the party in power to come forward and bring all our political parties to a single platform to fight this common enemy. We must eliminate them from our sacred soil. We must win!

G Ahmed, Dhaka

It began at the Ramna Batamul. It slowly but surely spread unnoticed. The elements responsible for all these heinous attacks were emboldened by the indifference of the government and security agencies. If they can get away with attacking a foreign diplomat, why wouldn't they attack the leader of the opposition?

Saif, Dhaka

I was shocked to read about the murderous grenade attack on the opposition rally. Such things used to happen only in Karachi, never in Dhaka! The government must get to the bottom of this immediately. If necessary, the police should arrest BNP and Jamaat party workers and interrogate them. Otherwise, this incident will become just another unexplained bomb attack, and simply accepted as part of our farcically 'democratic' political environment.

Zeeshan Hasan, London School of Economics, London, UK

The bloodiest bomb attack on the opposition party was launched last Saturday. So many people have been killed and mutilated in the attack . It is very sad to see that protest against bomb attacks is replied with grenade attacks in our country. What was the driving force behind such a massacre? To destroy the existence of the opposition party? These questions will never be answered but such attacks only speak of our hatred and bloodthirsty attitude. Are we humans anymore?

Nayeem Islam, The Aga Khan School, Uttara, Dhaka

The nation is extremely shocked with Saturday's attack on an opposition rally. Every sane human would shudder at the blood stained pictures of electronic and print media. I was simply flabbergasted! Now, we cannot blame anybody but ourselves. We are the people who have been indulging this monster since long and now it's turned its deadly fangs on our neck like a blood sucking vampire! If we still do not stand united against this monster, as a nation, our existence will be in jeopardy.

I hope the government will make an all out effort to unmask the perpetrators who were behind this heinous and dastardly act. May Allah save our beloved country!

Mohammed Sohel Hara, Dilu Road, New Eskaton , Dhaka