Party leaders and workers formed a human shield to protect the then opposition leader and outgoing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Sheikh Hasina miraculously survived the fierce grenade attack that day. As Sheikh Hasina, the main target of the attack, escaped, 12 rounds of bullets were fired at her car while she was being taken from the scene to a safe place.
However, the bullets could not penetrate the bulletproof vehicle carrying Bangabandhu’s daughter. Soon after the attack, Sheikh Hasina was herded into a car and taken to Sudha Sadan, her then residence in Dhanmandi.
But, the attack killed 24 people, including the then women’s affairs secretary of the Awami League and wife of late President Zillur Rahman, and injured over 500 others and left many of them crippled for life.
Among the others killed in the grenade attack included the then opposition leader’s personal security guard Lance Corporal (retd) Mahbubur Rashid, Abul Kalam Azad, Rezina Begum, Nasir Uddin Sardar, Atique Sarkar, Abdul Kuddus Patwari, Aminul Islam Moazzem, Belal Hossain, Mamun Mridha, Ratan Shikdar, Liton Munshi, Hasina Mamtaz Reena, Sufia Begum, Rafiqul Islam (Ada Chacha), Mostaque Ahmed Sentu, Md Hanif, Abul Kashem, Zahed Ali, Momen Ali, M Shamsuddin and Ishaque Miah.