Protesters in Bangladesh focused the homes of a number of leaders of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League and continued Thursday (February 6, 2025) with the demolition of a memorial in Dhaka to the nation’s founding chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
On Wednesday (February 5, 2025) evening, protesters rallied in entrance of Mujibur Rahman’s home within the capital’s Dhanmondi space, now a memorial, following a social media name for a “bulldozer procession” earlier than Ms. Hasina’s scheduled digital tackle from exile in India. The mob set the home on hearth.
Related circumstances of arson have been later reported from different components of Bangladesh.
“They’ll demolish a constructing, however not the historical past… however they have to additionally do not forget that historical past takes its revenge,” Ms. Hasina stated in her tackle Wednesday (February 5, 2025) evening whereas her father’s dwelling was being demolished.
An excavator was seen at work on the home persevering with with the demolition. The constructing within the adjoining plot which had housed the places of work of a number of Awami League outfits was additionally being demolished.
The violent demonstrators additionally defaced murals of Mujibur Rahman.
The residence of Ms. Hasina’s late husband Wajed Mian often called ‘Sudha Sadan’ on Highway 5 in Dhanmondi was additionally set on hearth by protesters late on Wednesday (February 5, 2025).
For the reason that ousting of the Hasina-led authorities on August 5, Sudha Sadan had been fully vacated. The actions in Dhaka fuelled comparable destructions in different components of Bangladesh.
Protesters additionally demolished the house of Ms. Hasina’s cousins Sheikh Helal Uddin and Sheikh Salauddin Jewel in Khulna Metropolis.
1000’s of individuals gathered round the home, chanting “Delhi or Dhaka — Dhaka, Dhaka” and “Down with Mujibism”.
Mr. Helal was the previous MP of Bagerhat-1 and Salahuddin Jewel was the previous MP of Khulna-2.
Protesting college students additionally eliminated the identify of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Corridor of Dhaka College.
The properties of former lawmaker of Kushtia-3 and Awami League Joint Basic Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif and president of Kushtia Awami League Sadar Khan have been additionally ransacked.
Protesters in Chattogram took half in a torch procession final evening to show towards Ms. Hasina’s speech, which was broadcast on Bangladesh Awami League’s social media accounts.
They later defaced Mujibur Rahman’s murals at Chittagong Medical Faculty, Begum Rokeya College in Rangpur and within the metropolis’s Jamal Khan space.
Protesters additionally vandalised murals of Mujibur Rahman in lots of different locations.
In Barishal, demonstrators introduced a bulldozer to the home of Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah, former mayor of town company and a relative of Ms. Hasina. He owns a two-storey dwelling within the metropolis’s Kalibari Highway space.
The mayhem on Wednesday (February 5, 2025) started after Anti-Discrimination College students Motion chief Hasnat Abdullah wrote on his verified Fb account: “Tonight, Bangladesh shall be liberated from the place of pilgrimage for fascism.”
Ms. Hasina, delivering her tackle organised by Awami League’s now disbanded pupil wing Chhatra League, in a comparatively calm tone referred to as upon the countrymen to organise a resistance towards the present regime.
“They’re but to have the energy to destroy the nationwide flag, the structure and the independence that we earned at the price of lives of tens of millions of martyrs with a bulldozer,” Ms. Hasina stated in a visual reference to Professor Muhammad Yunus’s incumbent regime.
“They’ll demolish a constructing, however not the historical past… however they have to additionally do not forget that the historical past takes its revenge,” she stated.
The deposed premier in a barely emotion-choked voice stated Pakistani troops too looted the home in the course of the 1971 Liberation Warfare however didn’t demolish or set it on hearth.
“Right now, this home is being demolished. What crime had it dedicated? Why have been they so afraid of the home… I search justice from the folks of the nation. Didn’t I do something for you?” she stated.
The scholar motion earlier promised to scrap Bangladesh’s 1972 Structure as they promised to bury the “Mujibist structure” whereas some far-right teams additionally prompt a change of the nationwide anthem adopted by Mujib-led post-independence authorities.
In the meantime, a key adviser of Bangladesh’s interim authorities on Thursday (February 5, 2025) urged residents to shift their focus from “damaging” actions to constructive initiatives after protestors focused properties.
“We face regional and international hegemony, not simply mere buildings. (So) As an alternative of breaking idols, we should construct counter-ideals, energy, and hegemony,” stated Mahfuz Alam in a Fb put up.
In a reference to the toppling of Ms. Hasina’s regime, Mr. Alam wrote the abolition of a “fascist system” was not merely about dismantling but in addition about “constructing another, counter-ideal, energy construction, and affect”.
He stated Awami League or Ms. Hasina, in essence, have been “nothing however extensions of regional hegemony” which was constructed by means of a practical “state imaginative and prescient, expert human assets each domestically and inside the diaspora, and robust state establishments”.
“Our counter-hegemony should depend on these three elements as properly,” Me. Alam wrote which seems to be the primary response of the federal government after the demolition of 32 Dhanmondi.
Ms. Hasina, 77, has been dwelling in India since August 5 final 12 months when she fled Bangladesh following a large student-led protest that toppled her Awami League’s 16-year regime.
Ms. Hasina’s father is broadly seen as an independence hero, however anger at his daughter has tarnished his legacy.
He was killed together with most of his members of the family in a coup staged by a bunch of junior or mid-ranking army officers on August 15, 1975, when Ms. Hasina and Sheikh Rehana have been in Germany.
Revealed – February 06, 2025 03:59 pm IST
