Hundreds of Bangladeshi students carrying bamboo sticks patrolled the venue of a planned gathering of supporters of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday and vowed to prevent any show of force.
Hasina, 76, last week fled by helicopter to neighbouring India, where she remains living, despite student protests on the streets of Dhaka bringing a dramatic end to her 15-year rule.
Thursday is the anniversary of the assassination of his father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during a military coup in 1975 – a date his government declared a national holiday.
Massive rallies have been held across Bangladesh to mark the occasion in previous years, but the students who toppled Hasina from power were keen to ensure that supporters of her Awami League party did not get a chance to gather again.
According to the Daily Star newspaper, prominent student leader Sarjis Alam had told reporters the previous day, “The Awami League will try to create chaos on Thursday in the name of mourning day.”
“We will be out on the streets to oppose any such attempt.”
In the absence of police, hundreds of students on Thursday patrolled the road leading to Hasina’s old family home, where her father and several relatives were shot dead nearly 50 years ago.
The historic site was until recently his father’s museum, but it was set on fire and vandalised by a mob a few hours after his fall.
In her first public statement since her sudden departure, Hasina this week asked supporters to “lay wreaths and pray for the salvation of all souls” outside the historic site.
During his tenure, thousands of civil servants joined public demonstrations organised over the death of his father.
Awami League organisers also set up temporary public address systems around Dhaka, playing old speeches of Mujib and devotional songs praising his leadership.
Bangladesh’s current caretaker administration on Tuesday cancelled a politically significant holiday, asking bureaucrats to remain at their posts.
And on Thursday, the main sound in this city of 20 million was the horns and honking of motors from the perpetually jammed traffic.
‘Identified and punished’
Hasina’s statement came hours after a court in the capital registered a murder case against her, two senior Awami League colleagues and four police officers related to last month’s unrest.
Several other top Awami League politicians have also been detained in unrelated investigations, including former law minister Anisul Huq and business consultant Salman Rahman.
Hasina’s statement also called for an investigation into the violence during the unrest that forced her to step down, and said the culprits “must be identified and punished.”
Police weapons were responsible for the deaths of more than 450 people during the protests calling for Hasina’s ouster, according to police and hospital data collected earlier by AFP.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
