Wave of attacks overnight also targeted houses and businesses belonging to Hasina’s Awami League supporters.Thousands of protesters in Bangladesh have demolished and set fire to the home of the country’s founding leader, as his daughter, ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, delivered a fiery social media speech calling on her supporters to stand against the interim government.
The attack on Wednesday night was prompted by a speech Hasina planned to give to supporters from exile in neighbouring India, where she fled last August after a deadly student-led uprising against her 15-year rule. Critics had accused her of suppressing dissent.
The house in the capital, Dhaka, had been home to Hasina’s late father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971. He was assassinated there in 1975. Hasina later turned the home into a museum.
According to news reports, several thousand protesters, some armed with sticks, hammers and other tools, gathered around the historic house and independence monument, while others brought a crane and excavator to demolish the building on Wednesday night. Advertisement
Photos posted on social media and published by news organisations showed the building almost levelled to the ground, while parts of it were completely burned.
The country’s leading English-language Daily Star reported early on Thursday that a wave of attacks overnight also targeted several houses and businesses belonging to Hasina’s Awami League supporters.
The rally was organised alongside a broader call, dubbed “Bulldozer Procession”, to disrupt Hasina’s scheduled online address on Wednesday …
