Mobs wielding bamboo sticks and pipes thrashed supporters of Bangladesh’s toppled ruling party on Thursday, preventing them from gathering for their first major gathering since their leader fled the country.
The attackers, in Dhaka, the capital, were largely supporters of Opposition parties that had endured abuse from former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League. The student protesters who rallied to topple Hasina have become de facto police offers on the streets, but on Thursday they were mostly on the sidelines, broadcasting pleas for peace and calm that were ignored.
Members of the toppled Awami League Party were trying to gather to mark the anniversary of the death of Bangladesh’s founding leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was killed in a military coup that also massacred much of his family; Sheikh Hasina, his daughter, was one of the few who escaped.
The Awami League demonstrators planned to gather at Sheikh Mujib’s old house, which had become a museum. It had been set on fire the day Sheikh Hasina fled the country.
But as they tried to mobilise on Thursday morning, the roads leading to the site were blocked by mobs of people wielding bamboo sticks and green plastic pipes. They beat anyone they suspected of being with the Awami League, and sought to prevent the media from documenting their violence. Some of the thrashed men fled, while others were bloodied and dragged away.
Mohammad Shamsuddin, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — one of those long repressed by the ousted government — said they would not let the Awami League gather while the blood from Ms. Hasina’s crackdown was still fresh. He said they would stay on the streets and prevent their rallies until Ms. Hasina faced trial.
“Everyone has the right to protest,” he said. “But no one can protest on the side of the killers.”
The violence — latest outbreak in the cycle of vengeance that has afflicted Bangladesh through many turbulent periods — highlighted one of the stark challenges facing the new interim government. And there have been other troubling signs that the government will struggle to keep order and bring justice.
New York Times News Service