In an online address from exile, former PM Sheikh Hasina accused the interim government led by Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus of destroying the country by sheltering extremists.
On Wednesday, February 5, the memorial of Bangladesh’s founding president and father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the capital Dhaka was stormed by hundreds of people and later torched and destroyed using bulldozers. Following the demolition of the memorial museum, also known as Bangabandhu Bhavan, another round of acts of vandalism were carried out against statues of Mujibur Rahman and houses of Awami League leaders and party offices across the country. A mob also attacked and ransacked the house of the League’s general secretary Obaidul Qauder.
The mob violence and vandalism was reportedly in response to a live address by ousted PM Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, February 5. In the speech which aired the same evening as the destruction of Bangabandhu Bhavan, Hasina accused the interim government in the country led by Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus of destroying the country by sheltering extremist elements.
“A game of destruction has started around Bangladesh, which is going through a phase of chaos and upheaval. Bangladesh, which was a model of development across the world, has become the land of terrorists and militants. This is indeed a matter of great misfortune for us all,” Hasina said.
Speaking to Peoples Dispatch, Mrinal Das, a member of Awami League’s Central Committee called the attack on Bangabandhu Bhavan an attack on the symbol of the country’s liberation, secularism, and liberalism. “This vandalism is a creation of anti-liberation forces, extremists who are anti-progress and sectarian in nature” who have demolished the democratic system in the country, he claimed.
The destruction of the museum was carried out under the leadership of the Students Against Discrimination, a group formed by the leaders of the anti-quota movement last year which had forced Hasina to resign and leave the country in August. Representatives of that student group are part of the interim government led by Yunus.
“Tonight Bangladesh will be free from the pilgrimage site of fascism,” wrote Hasnat Abdullah, convenor of the Students Against Discrimination on his Facebook page just before the demolition of Sheikh’s memorial started on Wednesday evening.
The crowd gathered at Dhanmondi-32, another name for the memorial museum, after a call was made on social media for a “Bulldozer March.” The crowd made up of hundreds of mainly young people cheered the destruction of the house by shouting slogans against “death to fascism” and “death to dictatorship”. The anti-quota students movement and the interim government has accused Hasina and her Awami League party of being a “fascist” “dictatorship”.
Dhanmondi-32
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the founding leader of the Awami League which led the fight against Pakistan in 1971 for the liberation of the country. He became Bangladesh’s first president and also served as prime minister later. He was assassinated inside the Dhanmondi-32 house on August 15, 1975 during a military coup.
Dhanmondi-32 also serves as a museum of liberation war with several other buildings nearby hosting Awami League offices. The house was also set on fire during the July-August agitation.
Interim government fails to maintain law and order
The call for the gathering at Dhanmondi on Wednesday coincided with an online speech of Sheikh Hasina. During her speech, Hasina accused the interim government of failing to protect the country’s minorities and targeting the opposition. She also accused Yunus of being the mastermind behind the killings of people during the protests last year, the Print reported, which also published the full transcript of the speech.
The Bangladesh authorities had banned the scheduled relay of the speech by Hasina, calling it a “hate speech.”
In comments to Peoples Dispatch, Mrinal Das of the Awami League claimed the protesters who attacked Bangbandhu memorial were backed by religious extremists in the country who are also behind the interim government. He claimed the attack is the continuation of the attacks on his party’s offices and leaders since Yunus took over. He accused Yunus of being autocratic and being an agent of imperialist forces and expressed hope that people of Bangladesh will not accept such acts and all the perpetrators would be punished at the right moment.
The Awami League also issued a statement condemning the act and accusing the interim government of providing “immunity” to such acts. “Dr Yunus and the entire interim government cannot escape liability for last night’s destructive acts,” it said on Thursday.
Speaking to Peoples Dispatch, Sharif Shamshir, a member of the left-wing Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB) claimed that the act of vandalism at Bangbandhu memorial and museum was a continuation of last year’s events following the ousting of Hasina. The forces behind the regime change were the religious parties which did not like the values of liberation, secularism, and democracy represented by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and therefore carried out the destruction of symbols of his politics.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs which has so far refused to extradite Hasina (77) to Bangladesh despite repeated warrants against her, called Wednesday’s destruction of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s memorial as “regrettable” terming it a “symbol of the heroic resistance of the people of Bangladesh against the forces of occupation and oppression.”
Several other groups and parties in Bangladesh condemned the vandalism and accused the interim government of failing to maintain the law and order.
In a statement issued on Friday, Yunus, however, refrained from condemning the acts of vandalism at Dhanmondi claiming “the government understands the activists’ sense of outrage” against Hasina and her party calling them fascist and accusing them of provoking the protests. However, he warned that his government would not tolerate any further destruction.
Source- People’s Dispatch, February 19, 2025.
