Protesters in Bangladesh have attacked, torched houses of leaders of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League across the country and murals of the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were demolished and defaced in nearly two dozen districts, according to media reports.
The unrest sparked after a live online address of Hasina.
A fire has been set at the house of Awami League Presidium Member Sheikh Selim in Dhaka’s Banani on Friday.
The fire was set around 1:30 am on Friday, but due to a lack of police protection, the Fire Service was delayed and was not able to reach the scene until 2:45 am.
Unruly crowds set the fire at Selim’s residence in Banani. Security concerns prevented the Fire Service vehicles from accessing the site immediately, the Fire Service control room duty officer was quoted as saying by the United News of Bangladesh (UNB).
A day after the Dhanmondi-32 residence of Sheikh Mujib was torched and torn down, protesters attacked, ransacked, and set fire to the house of Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Awami League (AL) and former road, transport and bridges minister, in Noakhali’s Companiganj, the Daily Star reported on Friday.
During the attack on the house in the Bora Rajapur Mohalla area around 1:00 pm, the two-storey building and tin-roofed rooms of Quader’s younger brother Abdul Quader Mirza, president of Companiganj AL, and Shahadat Mirza, former mayor of Basurhat municipality, were also ransacked.
A car parked in front of the house was also torched. No one was home then.
In Rajshahi, a group of protesters set fire to the three-storey house of Shahriar Alam, former state minister for foreign affairs, in Chaksinga Mohalla in Bagha upazila, UNB reported.
Witnesses said over 100 people from Bagha and Charghat upazilas went there on motorbikes and set the house on fire around noon.
Protesters also attacked and torched the house of AL leader Abu Sayeed in the Shalgaria village of Pabna yesterday.
They broke the gate, ransacked the house, and then set it on fire on Thursday evening, said witnesses.
Abu Sayeed, vice-president of Pabna Sadar upazila AL and also the former chairman of Varara Union Parishad, is accused in a case filed over an attack on demonstrators that left two students dead during the July uprising. He has been in hiding since.
On Thursday, in Cumilla, protesters demolished two murals of Sheikh Mujib in the city.
They took a bulldozer to the Cumilla Judge Court premises around 4:00 pm and demolished a mural in front of a court building.
Addressing the people present at the scene, Rashedul Haque, secretary of the Cumilla City unit of Students Against Discrimination, said, “We will demolish all signs of fascism.”
Later on, another mural of Sheikh Mujib was bulldozed at Cumilla City Park.
In Narayanganj, pro-BNP lawyers demolished murals and a bust of Sheikh Mujib at the Narayanganj Judge Court premises and the offices of deputy commissioner, and superintendent of police in the city.
Construction workers were called in and instructed to demolish them with hammers and crowbars, said witnesses.
In Narsingdi, demonstrators defaced a mural of Sheikh Mujib on the District and Sessions Judge Court premises around noon.
Some 10 pro-AL Bangladesh Chhatra League activists, who were then being taken to court by police, were also attacked.
Witnesses said several hundred people went to the AL office in the Main Road area around 4:00 pm and demolished it with an excavator.
In Bagerhat, six murals of Sheikh Mujib were defaced in the Muktijoddha Complex, Municipality Park, Shaheed Minar areas in the town, and in Mongla Upazila Parishad Complex, Mongla Children Park, and Muktijoddha Bhaban on Thursday.
Protesters also demolished a mural of Sheikh Mujib at the Barishal Press Club.
Demonstrators also set fire to several properties, including the Feni district AL office and the houses of ex-MPs Lt Gen (retd) Masud Uddin Chowdhury, and Alauddin Ahmed Chowdhury Nasim.
In Thakurgaon, protesters defaced five murals of Sheikh Mujib, Sheikh Russel, and Sheikh Moni in the town.
The student movement earlier promised to scrap Bangladesh’s 1972 Constitution as they promised to bury the “Mujibist constitution” while some far-right groups also suggested a change of the national anthem adopted by Mujib-led post-independence government.
Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 last year when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her Awami League’s 16-year regime.
Hasina’s father is widely viewed as an independence hero, but anger at his daughter has tarnished his legacy.
In a Facebook livestream, Hasina condemned the attack and demanded “justice”.
“They can demolish a building, but they can’t erase history,” she said.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity and genocide”.PTI
