Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the August 21 grenade attack, one of the most horrific attacks in Bangladesh’s political history.
On August 21, 2004, a devastating grenade attack was carried out at an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka. The attack killed 24 people, including Awami League leader Ivy Rahman, and injured hundreds more.
During the investigation and trial, Tarique Rahman, then acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), emerged as one of the principal accused and was described by the prosecution as a key mastermind of the attack. The prosecution alleged that Tarique Rahman, along with several influential figures of the then BNP-Jamaat government, was involved in planning and carrying out the attack.
After a lengthy judicial process, Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 sentenced Tarique Rahman to life imprisonment on October 10, 2018. In the same verdict, 19 people, including former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and former Deputy Minister for Education Abdus Salam Pintu, were sentenced to death, while another 19 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, the legal proceedings later took a different turn. On December 1, 2024, the High Court overturned the trial court’s verdict and acquitted all the accused in the August 21 murder and explosives cases. The state appealed against the decision, but on September 4, 2025, the Appellate Division upheld the acquittals. As a result, the life sentence imposed on Tarique Rahman by the trial court in 2018 is no longer legally in effect.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s political landscape has undergone another major transformation. Tarique Rahman, the former BNP leader who was once convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the August 21 cases, is now the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
On the 22nd anniversary of the attack, these two vastly different chapters of Bangladesh’s political history are being discussed side by side: on one hand, a former accused who was once sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with one of the country’s most horrific political attacks, and on the other, the current head of government. For many, this remains a deeply troubling and shameful chapter in the nation’s history.
The memories of the 24 people killed in the August 21 attack and the scars left on hundreds of survivors remain deeply embedded in Bangladesh’s political history. More than two decades later, despite the subsequent changes in the legal outcome, the bloodshed of August 21 continues to be one of the country’s most significant and controversial political chapters.