New Delhi, Feb 6: Protesters in Bangladesh on Thursday resumed the demolition of the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s house after vandalising and setting it on fire last night.
The violent demonstrators also demolished the houses of leaders of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League and defaced murals of Mujibur Rahman after deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s live online address here.
Several thousand people rallied on Wednesday in front of Hasina’s father Mujibur Rahman’s house in the capital’s Dhanmondi area, which had earlier been turned into a memorial museum. The rally followed a social media call for a “Bulldozer Procession” as Hasina was supposed to deliver her address.
Later, an excavator started demolishing the residence. On Thursday morning, the demolition was still underway, using heavy machines.
The residence of Hasina, Sudha Sadan, located on Road 5 in Dhanmondi, was also set on fire by protesters late on Wednesday, The Daily Star newspaper reported.
Since the ousting of the Hasina-led government on August 5, Sudha Sadan had been completely vacated.
The demonstrators overnight also set on fire the deceased nuclear scientist Wajed Mian’s house in the Dhanmondi area, which was used as Hasina’s political office.
The actions in Dhaka fuelled similar destructions in other parts of Bangladesh.
Protesters also demolished the Khulna home of Hasina’s cousins Sheikh Helal Uddin and Sheikh Salauddin Jewel.
Thousands of people gathered around the house, chanting “Delhi or Dhaka — Dhaka, Dhaka” and “Down with Mujibism”.
Ahsan Habib, additional deputy commissioner of Khulna Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star, “I have seen the news of the incident on Facebook, but I don’t have further information.”
Sheikh Helal was the former MP of Bagerhat-1 and Sheikh Salahuddin Jewel was the former MP of Khulna-2.
Protesting students also removed the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall of Dhaka University.
The homes of former lawmaker of Kushtia-3 and Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif and president of Kushtia Awami League Sadar Khan were also ransacked.
Protesters in Chattogram took part in a torch procession last night to demonstrate against Hasina’s speech, which was broadcast on Bangladesh Awami League’s social media accounts.
They later defaced Sheikh Mujib’s murals at Chittagong Medical College and in the city’s Jamal Khan area.
Leaders and activists of Students Against Discrimination held a protest rally and a sit-in in the Bandar Bazar in Sylhet.
Protesters also defaced a mural of Mujib at Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur.
In Barishal, demonstrators brought a bulldozer to the house of Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah, former mayor of the city corporation and a relative of Hasina. He owns a two-storey home in the city’s Kalibari Road area.
Protesters vandalised a mural of Bangabandhu near the Circuit House ground in Mymensingh city with hammers and crowbars around 11:30 pm on Wednesday, Prothom Alo newspaper reported.
The “Mujib Mural” of Bangabandhu Hall was also vandalised at the National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam University in Trishal.
The mural of Mujibur Rahman and his wife Fazilatunnesa Mujib at the Chuadanga deputy commissioner’s office was demolished around 12:15 am on Thursday, the Bangla Daily reported.
In Bhairab, Kishoreganj, the protesters vandalised the mural of Mujib at the upazila Awami League office and the upazila parishad last night.
The mayhem on Wednesday began after Anti-Discrimination Students Movement leader Hasnat Abdullah wrote on his verified Facebook account: “Tonight, Bangladesh will be liberated from the place of pilgrimage for fascism.”
Hasina, delivering her address organised by Awami League’s now disbanded student wing Chhatra League, in a relatively calm tone called upon the countrymen to organise a resistance against the current regime.
“They are yet to have the strength to destroy the national flag, the constitution and the independence that we earned at the cost of lives of millions of martyrs with a bulldozer,” Hasina said in a visible reference to Professor Muhammad Yunus’s incumbent regime.
She added: “They can demolish a building, but not the history… but they must also remember that the history takes its revenge.”
The deposed premier in a slightly emotion-choked voice said Pakistani troops too looted the house during the 1971 Liberation War but did not demolish or set it on fire.
“Today, this house is being demolished. What crime had it committed? Why were they so afraid of the house… I seek justice from the people of the country. Didn’t I do anything for you?” she said.
Ali Ahsan Zonaed, another leader of the National Citizens’ Committee, a grouping of students allied to the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, wrote in a post: “Today marks the completion of six months of the July Uprising.”
“On this historic day, the butcher of Bengal, Hasina, decided to come out in public. What a day she has chosen! Now is the time for us to wake up again. Let’s eliminate all fascist elements on this historic day.”
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.
He was killed along with most of his family members in a coup staged by a group of junior or mid-ranking military officers on August 15, 1975, when Hasina and Rehana were in Germany. (PTI)
