Bangladeshi Students Patrol Streets To Resist Hasina Supporters (image-X/iSoumikSaheb)
Carrying bamboo rods, hundreds of students in Bangladesh guarded the venue of a planned gathering of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s supporters on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Hasina made her first official statement since fleeing the country, wherein she demanded punishment for “those responsible for the killings and sabotage, through investigation.” She also called for August 15 to be declared a national day while recalling the assassination of members of her family on the day in 1975.
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Her remarks came shortly after the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, cancelled the holiday marking the assassination of Hasina’s father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Earlier, huge rallies across Bangladesh were held on the occasion. However, after recent events, students were eager to ensure supporters of her political party, the Awami League, do not regroup.
Thousands of students took to the streets on Thursday to patrol the streets leading to the ousted prime minister’s old family residence. The place used to be a museum dedicated to her father before it was vandalised and torched by a mob following her resignation.
Outside the old residence, Hasina asked supporters to “pray for the salvation of all souls by offering floral garlands and praying.”
The 76-year-old Hasina, soon after her resignation, fled the country to India, where she currently remains.
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Meanwhile, Dhaka’s chief metropolitan magistrate court opened a murder probe into Hasina and six top leaders from her administration. Former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and Obaidul Quader, general secretary of the Awami League, as well as four top police officers appointed by the government who have since vacated their posts, have been named by the court.
Hasina’s government has been accused of widespread human rights abuses, such as the extrajudicial killings of her political rivals. The case is the first to be filed against the country’s former prime minister after weeks of violent protests that have killed over 300 people.
