"Sir (Kibria) was the target of the attackers," Anup Kumar Dev, Habiganj district AL office secretary, said while describing the incident to The Daily Star.

"The grenade was thrown at them as they stepped out of the narrow school gate where the meeting was held. The blast rocked the whole area spreading hundreds of splinters."

"I found all who were accompanying Sir (Kibria) lying in a pool of blood. I've never seen so much of blood in my life," he said. "We've seen the photographs of the grenade attacks on Bangabandhu Avenue and it was not different from that," he added.

Anup and other witnesses who took Kibria and two others -- Habiganj district AL General Secretary (GS) advocate Abu Jahid and upazila AL Organising Secretary Abdulah Sarder -- to the capital said they did not see who threw the grenades.

"It was a planned killing and I've no doubt the killers were professionals," said Abdur Rashid Talukder Iqbal, GS of AL Sadar upazila unit.

Another witness, Shajahan, finance secretary of Habiganj district BCL, told The Daily Star that they did not imagine any such attack in even nightmares.

"The grenade thrashed Sir's left leg and the splinters cut his whole body. He was bleeding profusely, we failed to stop it," he said.

"After the attack, we could manage only one ambulance although many were lying seriously injured. We took Sir, Zahid and Abdullah in the ambulance and got another ambulance at Madhabpur," he said.

PLANNED ELECTRICITY CUT?
Witnesses said electricity went out just after the meeting ended.

"The meeting venue plunged into darkness with a sudden power cut just before the attack," Anup Kumar Dey, district AL office secretary, said.

"We had nothing to doubt when electricity suddenly went out. But then we heard the blasts and the electricity returned in a few seconds," said Anup.

"We're sure it was the killers who deliberately cut the power supply," he observed.