A large group of protesters on Wednesday vandalised and set on fire Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence in Dhaka during a live online address of his daughter and deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, news agency PTI reported. Witnesses said several thousand people rallied in front of the house at the capital’s Dhanmondi area, which was earlier turned into a memorial museum, since early evening following a social media call for “Bulldozer Procession” as Hasina was supposed to make her address at 9 pm (BST).
Visuals showed flames on one of the floors of the house. The protesters, reportedly demanding a ban on the Awami League, stormed the premises after breaking open the gate, causing widespread destruction, Dhaka Tribune reported, citing UNB. Local media connected the protest to an online address by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladesh Unrest: Hours before Sheikh Hasina’s online address, protesters burnt Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s home, demand…, watch video
According to the Dhaka Tribune, social media posts had earlier called for a “Bulldozer Procession” toward Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence at Dhanmondi-32 if Hasina delivered her speech. By 10:45 PM (local time), an excavator had been brought to demolish the house. Protesters, who had gathered in a rally around 8 PM, forced their way inside by breaking the main gate before proceeding to vandalize the property.
Originally, the demonstrators had warned of using an excavator to destroy the house at 9 PM, but they adjusted their strategy and showed up earlier, around 8 PM. As they reached the residence, they assembled in a procession, forcefully breached the main gate, and carried out extensive destruction.
Many protestors reportedly climbed to the second floor, using hammers, crowbars, and wooden planks to destroy portraits of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and damage sections of the historic house, Dhaka Tribune reported. The demonstrators proclaimed that the residence, long linked to the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman family, represented tyranny and oppression. They vowed to eliminate all remnants of what they termed ‘Mujibism’ and fascism from the nation. During the protest, the crowd chanted slogans calling for the execution of Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina delivered her address organised by the Awami League’s now disbanded student wing Chhatra League and 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 an apparent reference to Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus’s incumbent regime, installed by the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, PTI reported. She further added, “They can demolish a building, but not the history … but they must also remember that the history takes its revenge.”
Mob vandalising the residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Photo/ANI)
Earlier in the day, Hasnat Abdullah, convener of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, posted on Facebook: “Tonight, the land of Bangladesh will be freed from fascism.” Other figures, including Sharif Osman Hadi, the convener of the Inquilab Mancha and a member of the Jatiyo Nagorik Committee, also shared posts warning of the attack, Dhakar Tribune reported.
This was not the first time the Dhanmondi 32 residence has been targeted. Earlier on August 5, demonstrators had previously attacked the house, causing destruction and setting parts of it on fire, Dhakar Tribune reported.
#WATCH | Bangladesh | A mob vandalised and set on fire Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s memorial and residence at Dhanmondi 32 in Dhaka, demanding a ban on the Awami League. pic.twitter.com/azMcQCqngM
— ANI (@ANI) February 5, 2025
The house became an iconic symbol in Bangladesh history as Sheikh Mujib largely led the pre-independence autonomy movement for decades from the house while during the successive Awami League rule when it was turned into a museum, foreign heads of state or dignitaries used to visit in line with state protocol.
The 32 Dhanmondi residence was set on fire earlier on August 5 last year when Hasina’s nearly 16-year Awami League regime was toppled and she secretly left the country along with her younger sister Sheikh Rehana for India on a Bangladesh Air Force flight.
Hasina said she and her only surviving sibling had donated their ancestral house to a trust as a public property, turning the building into Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, as Sheikh Mujib was fondly called “Bangabandhu” or “Friend of Bengal” since the late 1960s when his movement for autonomy from Pakistan turned into a mass upheaval in 1969.
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.
A key-organiser of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, Abdul Hannan Masud, meanwhile, called for the demolition of all residences belonging to former Awami League MPs and ministers in a Facebook post proposing new buildings be constructed on those sites. Earlier in the day, convenor of the platform Hasnat Abdullah warned Bangladesh media outlets against broadcasting Hasina’s speech, saying it would be seen as facilitating her agenda.
In her speech, Hasina, however, said the ordinary students were used by Yunus for an orchestrated movement to grab the state power and urged them to go back to their studies to build their future to serve the country.
Meanwhile, Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd.) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said on Wednesday that the interim government is making all efforts to bring back Hasina and others from India under the extradition treaty.
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. Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity and genocide”.
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