The Bangladesh Observer
August 23, 2004

Front Page

Attack on AL rally in city - Expatriate Bangladeshis express anger

Staff Correspondent

The expatriate Bangladeshis on Sunday in different parts of the world expressed their anger over the dastardly grenade attack on Shiekh Hasina's rally at Bangabandu Avenue.

Expatriate Bangladeshis in America, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Nordic countries have sent their protests by fax and emails. Many have posted their reaction in expatriates websites.

They said that the bomb blast would further mar the smudged image of Bangladesh.
A New York based Bangladesh Human Rights Watch (BHRW) in a press release strongly condemned the heinous grenade attacks of the terrorists on the peaceful gathering of Awami League. Recent series of bomb attacks are the acts of the terrorists who are working against the humanity, democracy, religion and civil society, he said.
It has been understood that the attacks were mainly aimed at killing the leader of opposition in Parliament and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and other central leaders of Awami League, the statement issued by Dr. M. Mohsin Ali and Ratan Kumar Barua, president and general secretary of BHRW.

They also demanded immediate judicial inquiry and make international probe to find the real culprits of all recent bomb attacks. The members of Advisory Board of a US based rights network Mukto-Mona condemned the brutal attack on Sheikh Hasina.

They alleged that a vested quarter comprising religious extremists and some members of the ruling alliance were behind the assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina.

"We wish the civil society of Bangladesh will now come forward and join other secular forces to weed out bigotry, obscurantism, and communalism from Bangladesh," the statement of Mukto-Mona said.

A US based researcher and columnist A.H. Jaffor Ullah said that the spate of throwing homemade bombs and hand grenades on the gatherings of opposition politicians, cultural soirees, Pahela Baishak programme, Christian churches, Sufi shrines and other places had risen dramatically in the last 5-6 years.

"I am yet to hear any incidence of grenade attack or bomb blast in a meeting or a rally organised by Jamaat, Islamic Oikyo Jote, or even by BNP," he remarked.