LIVING IN PANIC

Many are wondering about the types and origins of the grenades used in the attack on Sheikh Hasina and the AL rally on 21st of August, 2004. The grenades are of ARGES brand, which is patented by an Austrian company "Armaturen Gesellschaft m.b.H." and weighs over one kilogram containing around 36,000 splinters. These detonate within four seconds after removing the clip and thus cannot be thrown outside a radius of 30 yards of the target.



Picture: Clockwise- 1) Grenade found at the scene of attack, 2) the ARGES models 3) Grenade found at Dhaka Central Jail on the following day. (Courtesy the Daily Star)

Now there is the question of the origin of these Grenades. When I searched using google, I found some interesting information. The use of ARGES hand grenades in terrorist activities in the sub-continent:

1) Explosions in Bombay, India on March 12,1993 - Dowd Ibrahim & Memon accused.

2) Attack in Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 -Laskar-e-Tayeba accused.

3) Two terrorists killed in an encounter near Tughlakabad Fort in New Delhi on Dec 13, 2002

India had linked the attacks with Pakistani extremists and ISI. According to the court records, the recovered hand grenades from the Parliament attack have the marking–HE (Spl HGr-84 Gren ARGES, HE 7 93 002). According to report received from Republic of Austria, an Austrian firm had sold machine and tools used in the production of "ARGES" hand grenades to a firm in Pakistan. That means Pakistan also has capability to produce these grenades. Pakistan Defense Forum shows the origin of ARGES HG 84P2A1 hand grenades procured by the Pakistan Army as : Armaturen-Gesellschaft mbH (ARGES), xxx, Austria; Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) & Wah (licensed).

This report says that The recovered grenades are "Urges-84" (ARGES-84) brand and made in China, usually used by Bangladesh Army. The marks in the grenades found are not inscribed (usual norm) but rather painted. Experts say that this means that these were produced to carry out subversive operations.

Now it is the duty of the security services and intelligences to analyze all the information and find out who are behind these. But I can certainly conclude here that the grenades may have links to Pakistan and/or possibly to the Islami extremists. Remember the recent arms haul in Chittagong? I hope experts can say whether the grenades found match with the ones found after the attack.

The Dhaka city is in panic of bomb threats and the shock of the gruesome attack. Many Schools have been kept closed even today and streets are not crowded with many people. For the betterment of all the government should this time give all its efforts to find out the attackers and solve they mystery of the bomb attacks. Otherwise we all be exposed under the hand of the terroists who can strike out anybody, anytime, anywhere.