Ground report: Armed students attack, detain Sheikh Hasina’s supporters in Dhaka

Tension gripped Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Thursday, the anniversary of the assassination of founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a day typically marked by large-scale commemorations but this year fraught with potential violence.

The caretaker government had cancelled the national holiday marking Mujib’s 1975 killing, a decision aimed at defusing tensions between supporters of the ousted Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally, Jamaat-e-Islami.

Fear of clashes kept many residents indoors, with shops shuttered across the city. Reports emerged of attacks on Awami League supporters by rivals as they sought to pay respects to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Hundreds of students armed with bamboo sticks patrolled the streets near Mujib’s former residence in Dhanmondi, checking the identification of passers-by and detaining those deemed suspicious, according to the Daily Star newspaper. The detainees were later handed over to the army.

The students, who played a key role in the recent protests that toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, vowed to prevent Awami League supporters from holding any gatherings.

“Awami League will try to create chaos on Thursday in the name of observing (the) mourning day,” prominent student leader Sarjis Alam told reporters Wednesday, according to the Daily Star. “We will remain on the streets to resist any such attempts.”

Sheikh Hasina, Rahman’s daughter, fled to India on August 5 after dramatic protests ended her 15-year rule. In her first public statement since her departure, she urged supporters to pray at the site of her father’s killing, which was recently vandalised.

Thousands of civil servants, typically required to participate in government-organized commemorations, were ordered to remain at their desks by the interim government.

The political turmoil comes as a court in Dhaka opened a murder case against Hasina, two senior Awami League allies, and four police officers in connection with last month’s unrest. Several other top party officials have also been detained.

Hasina has called for an investigation into the violence, blaming police weaponry for the deaths of more than 450 people during the protests.

(With AFP inputs)

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