Bangladesh protesters target homes of Awami League leaders in fresh wave of vandalism

Protesters in Bangladesh targeted the houses of several leaders of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League and continued Thursday (February 6, 2025) with the demolition of a memorial in Dhaka to the country’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

On Wednesday (February 5, 2025) night, protesters rallied in front of Mujibur Rahman’s house in the capital’s Dhanmondi area, now a memorial, following a social media call for a “bulldozer procession” before Ms. Hasina’s scheduled virtual address from exile in India. The mob set the house on fire.

Similar cases of arson were later reported from other parts of Bangladesh.

“They can demolish a building, but not the history… but they must also remember that history takes its revenge,” Ms. Hasina said in her address Wednesday (February 5, 2025) night while her father’s home was being demolished.

An excavator was seen at work at the house continuing with the demolition. The building in the adjacent plot which had housed the offices of several Awami League outfits was also being demolished.

The violent demonstrators also defaced murals of Mujibur Rahman.

The residence of Ms. Hasina’s late husband Wajed Mian known as ‘Sudha Sadan’ on Road 5 in Dhanmondi was also set on fire by protesters late on Wednesday (February 5, 2025).

Since the ousting of the Hasina-led government on August 5, Sudha Sadan had been completely vacated. The actions in Dhaka fuelled similar destructions in other parts of Bangladesh.

Protesters also demolished the home of Ms. Hasina’s cousins Sheikh Helal Uddin and Sheikh Salauddin Jewel in Khulna City.

Thousands of people gathered around the house, chanting “Delhi or Dhaka — Dhaka, Dhaka” and “Down with Mujibism”.  

Mr. Helal was the former MP of Bagerhat-1 and Salahuddin Jewel was the former MP of Khulna-2.

Protesting students also removed the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall of Dhaka University.

The homes of former lawmaker of Kushtia-3 and Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif and president of Kushtia Awami League Sadar Khan were also ransacked.

Protesters in Chattogram took part in a torch procession last night to demonstrate against Ms. Hasina’s speech, which was broadcast on Bangladesh Awami League’s social media accounts.

They later defaced Mujibur Rahman’s murals at Chittagong Medical College, Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur and in the city’s Jamal Khan area.

Protesters also vandalised murals of Mujibur Rahman in many other places.

In Barishal, demonstrators brought a bulldozer to the house of Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah, former mayor of the city corporation and a relative of Ms. Hasina. He owns a two-storey home in the city’s Kalibari Road area.

The mayhem on Wednesday (February 5, 2025) began after Anti-Discrimination Students Movement leader Hasnat Abdullah wrote on his verified Facebook account: “Tonight, Bangladesh will be liberated from the place of pilgrimage for fascism.”

Ms. Hasina, delivering her address organised by Awami League’s now disbanded student wing Chhatra League, in a relatively calm tone 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,” Ms. Hasina said in a visible reference to Professor Muhammad Yunus’s incumbent regime.

“They can demolish a building, but not the history… but they must also remember that the history takes its revenge,” she said.

The deposed premier in a slightly emotion-choked voice said Pakistani troops too looted the house during the 1971 Liberation War but did not demolish or set it on fire.

“Today, this house is being demolished. What crime had it committed? Why were they so afraid of the house… I seek justice from the people of the country. Didn’t I do anything for you?” she said.

The student movement earlier promised to scrap Bangladesh’s 1972 Constitution as they promised to bury the “Mujibist constitution” while some far-right groups also suggested a change of the national anthem adopted by Mujib-led post-independence government.

Meanwhile, a key adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday (February 5, 2025) urged citizens to shift their focus from “destructive” actions to constructive initiatives after protestors targeted properties.

“We are facing regional and global hegemony, not just mere structures. (So) Instead of breaking idols, we must build counter-ideals, power, and hegemony,” said Mahfuz Alam in a Facebook post.

In a reference to the toppling of Ms. Hasina’s regime, Mr. Alam wrote the abolition of a “fascist system” was not merely about dismantling but also about “building an alternative, counter-ideal, power structure, and influence”.

He said Awami League or Ms. Hasina, in essence, were “nothing but extensions of regional hegemony” which was built through a realistic “state vision, skilled human resources both domestically and within the diaspora, and strong state institutions”.

“Our counter-hegemony must rely on these three aspects as well,” Me. Alam wrote which appears to be the first reaction of the government after the demolition of 32 Dhanmondi.

Ms. 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.

Ms. Hasina’s father is widely viewed as an independence hero, but anger at his daughter has tarnished his legacy.

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 Ms. Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were in Germany.