August 21, 2004 was a ghastly chapter in the political history of Bangladesh.

Political opposition BNP rejects the August 21 grenade attack verdict delivered today, and called for weeklong demonstration starting from tomorrow.

The defence counsel will be appealing against the August 21, 2004 verdict that has sentenced 19 people to death and others in imprisonment in two cases.

The government will seek higher punishment for BNP’s acting Chairman Tarique Rahman in the August 21 grenade attack cases, Law Minister Anisul Huq says.

The prosecution team of August 21, 2004 grenade blast cases will now be waiting for the full text of the verdict before considering its next moves.

A victim in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, says he is unhappy with the verdict delivered by a special tribunal in two cases filed over the carnage.

The verdicts in August 21 grenade attack cases, to be delivered 14 years after the blasts on Bangabandhu Avenue, are likely to further heat up the political landscape ahead of the national election as several BNP leaders, including the party’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman, are accused in the cases.

Security measures have been beefed up in and around the court area in old Dhaka ahead of the verdict in the two cases filed over August 21 grenade attack.

Hours ahead of delivery of the verdicts in cases filed for the grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia says law enforcers will not tolerate any kind of anarchy centring the verdict.

A total of 31 accused of August 21 grenade attack cases including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu are being shifted to a Dhaka court from Kashimpur High Security Prison in Gazipur as the court is set to deliver its verdict in the cases.

The government takes stringent security measures in Dhaka city as a special court is set to deliver August 21 grenade case verdict.

According to the charge sheet of the case Huji leader Tajuddin, leader of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad Bangladesh (Huji) supplied 15 grenades. Among the bombs, 14 were thrown at the AL rally on Aug 21, 2004. 3 were found unexploded and another one was found near the old central jail in Dhaka.

In a mockery to justice, the then ruling BNP-led alliance government in 2004 hurriedly concluded the investigation into the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Dhaka’s Bangabandhu Avenue, claiming that it was orchestrated by none other than AL men.

In the wake of the heinous grenade blasts launched by Islamist militants on the then opposition Awami League’s rally on August 21, 2004 that left 24 people killed and over 400 others injured, witnesses and survivors share their accounts of the day, narrating the horror they experienced as the attack unfolded.

Trial of the August 21 grenade attack cases have been completed and its verdicts are set to be delivered on October 10.