Bangladesh mob beats suspected supporters of ex-PM
Several people the crowd suspected of being Awami League supporters were thrashed with sticks
Daily TribuneSeveral people the crowd suspected of being Awami League supporters were thrashed with sticks
Several people the crowd suspected of being Awami League supporters were thrashed with sticks, while others were forcibly escorted away.
AFP
DHAKA (AFP) — A mob wielding bamboo rods and plastic pipes beat several suspected supporters of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, vowing to quash a rumored rally by supporters outside her childhood home.
Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter last week to neighboring India as student-led protests flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted 15-year rule.
Thursday is the anniversary of the 1975 assassination of her father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during a military coup — a date her government had declared a national holiday.
Previous years saw huge rallies around Bangladesh to mark the occasion, but those glad to see Hasina toppled were eager to ensure supporters of her Awami League party did not have a chance to regroup.
“Fugitive and dictator Sheikh Hasina has ordered her goons and militia forces to come to the site so they can produce a counter-revolution,” Imraul Hasan Kayes, 26, told Agence France-Presse.
“We are here to guard our revolution so that it doesn’t slip out of our hands.”
With no police in sight, hundreds of men — most of them not students — formed a human barricade of the street leading to Hasina’s old family home, where her father and many of her relatives were gunned down 49 years ago.
The landmark was until recently a museum to her father, but it was torched and vandalized by a mob hours after her fall.
Several people the crowd suspected of being Awami League supporters were thrashed with sticks, while others were forcibly escorted away.
In her first public statement since her abrupt departure, Hasina had this week asked supporters to “pray for the salvation of all souls by offering floral garlands and praying” outside the landmark.
