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Gloom at Sudha Sadan as visitors shower sympathy

Diplomats, businessmen, politicians visit Hasina

Staff Correspondent
A surreal blend of gloom, a divine sense of gratitude and protest yesterday defined Sudha Sadan, the residence of Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, who survived an assassination attempt on her life.
Hundreds of people representing a
broad spectrum of society gathered there to offer sympathy for Hasina, a day after a series of closely-timed grenade attacks killed at least 18 people and injured 200 others in a gory scene that played out at an AL rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on Saturday.
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Diplomats, business leaders, politicians, university teachers, lawyers, leaders of the AL and its front organisations and other party leaders visited Hasina, who suffered grievous inner ear and leg injuries.
Party workers who could not access the house as security was tightened stayed out for hours -- some all day long -- and every time rushed to their leaders on their way out to know the condition of the AL chief.
Hasina, who came as close as one possibly can to being assassinated, broke down talking to her expatriate son and daughter by phone. Her sister Sheikh Rehana was with her in the fallout of the carnage that shocked the nation to the core.
US Ambassador Harry K Thomas, who met Hasina yesterday morning at her residence, said: "I'm incredibly surprised by the grisly attack."
He spent about 55 minutes with the former prime minister and learnt from her and other party leaders about the wave of attacks that relive post-apocalyptic movie scenes. Thomas offered sympathy for her on his and the US government's behalf.
"In a democratic society peaceful protest is common. But attacks on such a peaceful demonstration are most unfortunate. The responsible people must be tried," he said.
Thomas saw for himself the poke-marked jeep that carried Hasina home from the scene amid a hail of bullets fired by chasing assassins.
Later in the day, Indian High
Commissioner Veena Sikri visited Hasina and expressed sympathy: "I came here to express my deepest and heartfelt sympathy."
"All of us must join in condemning such incidents which represent a direct attack on the fabric of democracy that the people of Bangladesh are striving to weave for themselves," Sikri told a programme of a private airline later.
Rafiqul Islam, waiting outside Sudha Sadan, said: "I am feeling empty. I just don't know what to say. It's like we were going to lose everything. Hasina's survival is an act of God."
Anwar Mia, a rikshawpuller, was waiting for over two hours there to learn anything about Hasina. Talking to The Daily Star, the middle-aged man described her as the symbol of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
A worker of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student chapter of the AL, linked Saturday's attack to the killing of Bangabandhu and most of his family on August 15, 1975.
Gono Forum President Dr Kamal Hossain, Supreme Court Bar Association President Rokanuddin Mahmud, leaders of the Jatiya Party (Manju) Anwar Hossain Manju and Sheikh Shahidul Islam, BGMEA President Annisul Haq, former chief of army staff Mustafizur Rahman, former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Professor AK Azad Chowdhury also met Hasina and expressed sympathy.