Dhaka, Feb 8: Protesters in Bangladesh have attacked and torched houses of leaders of deposed prime minister 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 over a live online address by Hasina on Wednesday night, when protestors targeted the house of Sheikh Mujib.
A house of Awami League Presidium Member Sheikh Selim in Dhakaās Banani was set on fire around 1:30 am on Friday.
Security concerns prevented the Fire Service vehicles from accessing the site until 2:45 am, 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 ransacked and set the house of Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Awami League (AL), in Noakhali’s Companiganj on fire, the Daily Star newspaper 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 the three-storey house of Shahriar Alam, former state minister for foreign affairs, in Chaksinga Mohalla on fire, 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, 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.