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Two youths first threw grenades from ground

Injured AL leader Zafarullah says

SHAMEEM MAHMUD
The August 21 grenade attacks on Awami League (AL) rally started with at least two youths throwing the first two grenades from the pavement between Ramna Bhaban and City Bhaban, a senior AL leader injured in the attacks said yesterday.
"I was standing on the rear left of the
truck and saw a dark, tall youth throw something at the truck from the footpath between Ramna Bhaban and City Bhaban", AL Presidium Member Kazi Zafarullah MP said as he recalled the terrible scene.
Zafarullah received severe wounds in his left hand in the blasts that killed 19 and wounded over 200. The attacks began when Sheikh
Two youths
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Hasina had barely completed her speech.
"The first one bounced against the wooden railings of the truck and slid back on the street and I heard a loud explosion," said the senior AL leader.
His first impression, however, was that it was a handmade bomb.
"Right after the first blast I started shouting 'catch the man ... catch the man... bomb ... bomb', pointing at the spot where the attacker was standing."
He said, "In a second I saw another youth standing on the same spot hurl the second one yet again aiming at the truck. But it too went bang on the street."
"I only caught a glimpse of the attackers. I may not be able to describe what they were wearing but I think I could still recognise them," the AL leader said replying to a query while talking to The Daily Star at his Gulshan residence.
He said soon after the second blast, Sheikh Hasina's security personnel, along with the AL leaders on the truck, in a flash ringed the opposition leader to shield her from attacks. They also forced her to duck down on the floor of the truck.
"I was standing at the same place till the third blast. But I was so scared that I couldn't figure out what to do at that moment. The third one came from the right side, from the Awami League central office end and it too was thrown from the crowd, " Zafarullah continued.
"After the third blast, someone forced me to kneel down on the truck floor. Then I heard another three or four blasts followed by a brief pause. In the midst of this, I saw Tareq Siddique (Hasina's chief security man) firing skywards from his pistol."
As soon as Hasina was huddled into her car, the next string of attacks resumed.
"As far as I could see lying on the truck, Maya, Major General (retired) Tareq, Major (retired) Mamun and Nazir got into the back seats of Hasina's car," he said. "I heard a number of gunshots as the car sped away from the spot."
He said he did not see any grenade coming from the rooftops of the adjacent buildings. "There might be other teams of the attackers on the rooftops, but I didn't see them. What I saw was attacks came from four to five directions and from both the footpaths."
"After the carnage of not more than two or three minutes some of my party workers rescued me from the truck and took me into the party office".
He said police lobbed teargas into five or six minutes of the grenade attacks. Bleeding bodies littered the street when air was filled with groans of pain making it a ghastly scene.
The opposition lawmaker, who is flying to Singapore this noon, said none from any of the enquiry committees formed by the government had contacted him to record his account even after nine days of the bloody blasts.