Bangladesh protesters, vowing to ‘guard revolution’, beat Hasina supporters

Mob assaults supporters of the ousted leader and stops them from reaching a memorial to her father.

Hundreds of student protesters and political activists, vowing to guard Bangladesh’s student-led “revolution”, have attacked the supporters of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and prevented them from reaching the house of her father, the assassinated independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The rally was called on Thursday by the supporters of Hasina’s Awami League party to mark the anniversary of the August 15, 1975 assassination of Rahman and other members of his family during a military coup. Hasina survived along with her younger sister because they were visiting Germany.

Hasina’s government had declared August 15 a national holiday. But the holiday was cancelled by the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who took over following Hasina’s downfall.

Armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods and pipes and with no police in sight, hundreds of people blocked the entrance to Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, Hasina’s family home in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area that was turned into a memorial to her father. Rahman is fondly called “bangabandhu”, or a friend of Bengal.

The house was torched by the protesters hours after Hasina, 76, resigned and fled to India on August 5 in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted rule of 15 years. Her ouster followed an uprising during which more than 300 people were killed.