In Bangladesh, the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in the capital Dhaka was demolished with bulldozers by a raging crowd last night amid the presence of law enforcers. The museum, Dhanmondi 32, was the personal residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh and father of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The ‘protesting crowd’ first vandalised and set fire to the museum around 8:30 pm.
The destruction and arson continued for hours, and around 11:10 pm, the crowd brought an excavator to the spot. According to the Business Standard newspaper, the demolition followed a social media call for a “Bulldozer Procession Towards Dhanmondi 32”, triggered by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s scheduled 9 pm virtual address to her party’s banned student wing, Chhatra League. Earlier, Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner for crime Md Faruk Hossain said that they had deployed additional police forces in and around the Mujib Memorial Museum but eyewitnesses said that the police did not create any major obstacles to those moving to the museum in processions.
Sudha Sadan, the residence of Hasina’s late husband Dr MA Wazed Miah in Dhaka, was also set on fire by another group. The demonstration in the capital fuelled similar actions in other districts as well. In Khulna, the Sheikh Bari, which is the home of five cousins of Hasina, was demolished. Moreover, houses of Awami League leaders and structures linked to the Sheikh family were reportedly demolished in districts including Rajshahi, Kushtia and Sylhet.
The Mujib residence had become the centre of the non-cooperation movement leading up to the Liberation War in 1971. On 15 August 1975, Mujib and most of his family were assassinated at this house. During the tenure of Hasina, the house was later converted into a museum, preserving the Mujib family’s legacy and artefacts.