Parvin was found in a bloody mess on August 21, 2004. Her body was bleeding from at least 1,800 wounds caused by shrapnel when militants tried to kill Awami League President Sheikh Hasina at a rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.
She had been sitting close to the truck from where Sheikh Hasina was addressing the crowd of 20,000.
When the grenades struck, Parvin was at ground zero. After the initial fear and panic cleared, rescue workers found Parvin lying among the dead and the severely injured.
They initially thought she was dead. Parvin was sent to the morgue along with several others who died in the tragic attack. When a compatriot went to the hospital to identify her, Parvin’s pulse was sensed and she was rushed to the emergency unit.
Parvin was among the hundreds who were injured by the grenade attack. The attack killed 18 right away, and six more succumbed to their injuries afterwards. An estimated 500 were injured. Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped death with some damage to her right ear.
The Awami League lost 24 dedicated members, including Ivy Rahman, Women’s Affairs Secretary and wife to former president and AL stalwart Zillur Rahman. Parvin regained consciousness after 25 days in a hospital in India. Sheikh Hasina had arranged for her to be treated at the Peerless Hospital in Kolkata.
After her return, she was treated at the Combined Military Hospital, but doctors both here and there failed to remove the splinters. “It felt like thousands of needles were piercing my body. The pain was excruciating, as if I was struck by lightning. The left side of my body had begun to numb. That is all I can remember before passing out.” 
Justice delayed, justice denied?
Parvin’s distress is less about her physical injuries and more about her being denied justice. “I survived with 1,800 splinters in my body. The doctors could only remove three. Nobody can imagine the pain I go through every day. What pains me even more is that the attackers who did this to me and countless others have not been punished yet."
Parvin now works as the Women’s Affairs Secretary in the Dhaka unit of the Awami Swechchhasebak League. She hopes to see punitive measures exacted against the attackers during her lifetime.
Such a grim statement is not unfounded, families of many of the victims have passed away over the 13 years since the attack.
Rashida Aktar Ruma wakes up every day with 700 splinters. Her abdomen and ears are constantly wracked with pain. “It would have been better to have died that day. What is the point of escaping death if I am shrouded in agony every waking hour?” Ruma, Women’s Affairs Secretary of ward 69 of the Dhaka Mahila League, asks.
Abul Hossain Mollah was standing near the dais during the rally. He was struck in his left thigh, rectum and head. “Whenever it is a full moon or new moon, I can feel liquid agony coursing through my veins. In heat, itches break out all over my body. In cold, my innards turn icy,” he said.
For the survivors, normalcy seems like a fantasy. The scars on their body can tell tales, but the horrors in their minds do not see the light of day.
Raisul Alam suffers from diseases caused by the splinters in his body. Nazim’s skin begins to bleed in hot weather. There are countless others who wear their battle scars every day, but that is not their matter of grievance. Their cold rage is directed at the perpetrators.
The long wait
If one were to allege that the many victims of the attack were denied justice because they were not influential, one must take a look at the late president Zillur Rahman.
The bereaved Awami League leader was appointed as the president in 2009. He passed away in March 2013 without seeing justice ensured for his late wife.
Amena Begum, mother of Abdul Quddus Patwari who died on the spot, passed away in February 2014.
The families of the victims are grateful for what Sheikh Hasina has done for them in her capacity as party leader and prime minister. But they are eagerly waiting for a verdict that suits the crime.
Dhaka South Mayor Sayeed Khokon, son of late Awami League leader Mohammad Hanif who was critically injured in that attack while forming a human shield to save Sheikh Hasina, also demanded justice.
Mohammad Hanif passed away in November 2006. “I have every confidence in the judiciary and I am patient waiting to see the verdict delivered,” Khokon, who was also injured, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He referred to the Bangabandhu killing case, saying: “The prime minister received justice for her father’s murder through the normal judicial process. I too, expect the very same confidently.”
Marking the day as "dark chapter in politics", UGC Chairman Prof Dr Abdul Mannan, a prominent political analyst, said August 21 is another “dark chapter in the history of the nation’s politics.”
He said the attack on Bangabandhu Avenue shook up the country and the political parties. “Attacks on political rallies by opponents in Bangladesh are nothing new. But an attack using military-class grenades in an attempt to kill the leader of a political party is something unheard of anywhere in contemporary history.”
