(5 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dhaka, Bangladesh – 05 February 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of protesters bringing crane to demolish family home of exiled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
2. Mid of protesters entering house
3. Protesters tearing down house with crane
4. Various of protesters setting fire to house
5. Various of protesters chanting slogans
6. Various of protesters vandalising the house
7. Close of protesters vandalising murals of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
8. Wide of protest
9. Army personnel leaving scene
STORYLINE:
Thousands of protesters in Bangladesh took out their anger at exiled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday by destroying a family home that came to symbolize the country’s independence — and now, they say, the authoritarianism they believe she led.
The attack was sparked by a speech Hasina planned to give to supporters from exile in neighboring India, where she fled last year during 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 and Bangladesh’s independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who declared the country’s formal break from Pakistan there in 1971. He was assassinated there in 1975. Hasina later turned the home into a museum.
Since she fled the country, some of her supporters have tried to gather there but have been attacked by Hasina’s critics, who have attacked other symbols of her government and party since the uprising, ransacking and setting fires in several buildings.
On Wednesday, some protesters threatened to “bulldoze” the building if the former prime minister went ahead with her speech, which marked the start of a month-long protest program by her Awami League political party. The party is trying to gain support amid allegations of attacks on its members and other Hasina backers.
As Hasina began speaking, protesters stormed the house and started dismantling the brick walls, later bringing a crane and an excavator to demolish the building.
Many of the protesters chanted slogans demanding Hasina’s execution for hundreds of deaths during last year’s uprising against her. It was some of the country’s worst upheaval since independence. Hasina urged a U.N. investigation into the deaths.
They also chanted slogans criticizing India. An interim government in Bangladesh led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has sought Hasina’s extradition but India has not responded.
The interim government, which has been struggling to maintain order and prevent mob justice against Hasina’s supporters, has accused the former prime minister of widespread corruption and human rights abuses during her rule that began in 2009.
Hasina’s Awami League in turn has accused the Yunus-led government of violating human rights and suppressing Bangladesh’s minority groups, which authorities have denied.
AP video by Adullah Apu
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