Mahbuba, who is now the secretary of women’s affairs in Awami Swechchhasebak League Dhaka district unit, was the only Awami League activist from Savar who was called to attend the rally.
“I look up to Bangabandhu’s daughter and our party leader. So I stopped what I was doing at home when I received the call and went to the rally,” Mahbuba told the Dhaka Tribune.
She started towards Bangabandhu Avenue around 12:30pm, where the rally was going to be held, and reached around 30 minutes before it started. “As I was the only activist from Savar, I requested to sit at the front of the gathering so I would be able to see our leader speak.”
And she was able to do so, sitting very close to the truck from which Hasina addressed the rally.
“Apa [Hasina] came to address the rally after the other senior leaders gave their speeches. As she was wrapping up her speech, we suddenly heard a loud explosion and everything became dark.”
That day, at least 13 grenades were blasted aiming the rally, which drew more than 20,000 people.
Eighteen people died on the spot and more than 200 people were injured. The death toll went up to 24, including Ivy Rahman, the then women’s affairs secretary of the Awami League and wife of former president Zillur Rahman.
Mahbuba can still vividly recall how she felt in after the attack. “It felt like thousands of needles were pierced my body. The pain was so excruciating that I felt as if I had been struck by lightning. After a while, the left side of my body started going numb. That is the last thing I remember before I lost consciousness.”
Mahbuba was so heavily injured that the rescue workers primarily thought she was dead and sent her to the morgue with other dead bodies.
Hearing the news of her death, a fellow activist went to the morgue to identify her, but found that she still had pulse and immediately took her to hospital.
“I woke 25 days later, at Peerless Hospital in Kolkata,” she said, adding that her treatment abroad was arranged by Sheikh Hasina herself.
Mahbuba suffered several injuries in the attack, including severe ear damage. She was also hit with grenade splinters.
After she returned from Kolkata, she was treated for her ear damage at Combined Military Hospital on recommendation of Sheikh Hasina.
But the doctors could not remove the splinters. “I had 1,800 splinters in my body, and only three were removed. The rest of them cannot be removed.”
While she was undergoing treatment in Kolkata, rumour of her death quickly spread in Dhaka, especially when a photo of her lying on the street at the crime scene was published by newspapers the next day.
She said some of her acquaintances did not realize she was alive until 2009, when she was nominated to receive a monthly stipend of Tk5,000 from Bangabandhu Memorial Trust as an injured survivor of the attack.
The prime minister also assured her of bearing the academic expenses of her two sons, she told the Dhaka Tribune.
Mahbuba’s elder son is currently studying master’s in banking and insurance at Dhaka University, while her younger son is planning to pursue higher studies abroad after graduating from North South University in architecture.
She is now waiting for exemplary punishment for the perpetrators of the attack.
“The government has been sincere in getting justice in war crimes trial and Bangabandhu killing. I know the government also succeeds to get justice in the trial of the grenade attack.”
Still suffering from the aftermath of the attack, Mahbuba sought help from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for further treatment. She also asked for the prime minister’s help in arranging for her younger son’s higher studies.
