21 August black day, change the politics 

Eleven years ago, Farida Malek, full of energy and vigour, had walked around 10 kilometres with her party activists to join an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21.

She came to the same place yesterday to join another rally, but not on foot. She now finds it difficult to move. She came by a bus with a fellow colleague. With swollen legs, she sat in a specially arranged chair with others, giving a vacant look as people placed floral wreaths in memory of those who had lost their lives in the August 21 grenade attack.

"I saw death up close," murmured Farida, now in her mid forties. She was the woman affair secretary of Ward-19 Dhaka City AL at that time and still holds the post.

Yesterday she heard the speech of her leader Sheikh Hasina, now the prime minister, as she was doing on that humid afternoon in 2004, when Hasina, then opposition leader, was speaking against a series of bomb blasts in the country.

Much like the previous years, the ghastly scenes of blood spilling and people groaning in pain came to her mind as she turned up at the AL central office to mark the anniversary of the grisly attack.

"The scenes of that fateful day flash through my mind. I still remember I sat near Ivy apa ... I remember journalists requesting Sheikh Hasina to wait a bit for pictures, for which she had survived ... blood dripping from Hanif bhai's head is still fresh in my mind," said Farida who still has several hundreds of splinters in her body, especially from her lower waist to the ankles.

The grenade attack killed 24 people, including the AL woman affairs secretary Ivy Rahman, and left more than 300 injured.

"It pains me so much. The doctors said those splinters cannot be removed. I have to bear these till my death," Farida said with a choked voice.

The ruling party organised a programme in front of its central office yesterday to commemorate those who were killed in the grisly attack. Family members of the dead and the injured attended the programme. The prime minister met the victims' families and the injured party men after addressing the rally.

Like Farida, Rashida Akhter Ruma too had attended the rally in perfect shape on that day in 2004. But yesterday she came as a physically disabled person. She still shudders while recalling the fateful day.

She thinks she has been leading a cursed life for the last 11 years with nearly 700 splinters still in her body. She will have to spend the rest of her life this way.

"I would have been saved had I died on that day [August 21]. Escaping death, I now taste the pain of death every moment," she said.

Ruma is now a councillor in the reserved seats for women in Dhaka South City Corporation.

Narrating the horrifying event, she said that after the attack she was rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, and doctors had initially declared her dead as she was unconscious.

"Although I survived miraculously, my life will never be normal again as I have to bear the unbearable pain from the splinters till my death," said Ruma, women affairs secretary of ward-69 of Dhaka City AL Mahila League.

"When the pain from the splinters intensifies, I go almost mad," she said.

Similar is the condition of Khurshida Baby Hena, another victim. She said her pain was inexpressible.

"I came with a procession from Mohammadpur to join the rally. An awful situation was prevailing in the country at that time, but I couldn't imagine such a dreadful situation was waiting for me that would make my life meaningless," Hena, member of Mahila League, Dhaka City unit, said.

She has been suffering from diabetes for long and due to this problem she could not get proper treatment that required several operations.

"I lost my father, mother and husband ... I have none to take care of myself now. Only apa [Sheikh Hasina] looks after me," she said with an emotion-chocked voice.

Nihar Ranjon Kar, AL chief Sheikh Hasina's personal security staff, was on duty on that day. He still holds that position, but cannot discharge his responsibility as his both legs were badly damaged with splinters.

After being treated from India, he can walk now, but with the help of a crutch.

"I survived the attack, but it left me to a painful life," said Nihar, a former army warrant officer.