Bangladesh interim govt says harassment is ‘reprehensible,’ after students disrupt Hasina-related event

Bangladesh’s interim government urged university students Thursday not to harass people or check their phones, calling those actions “reprehensible” after some were injured when students disrupted an event in Dhaka organized by supporters of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

Students who had earlier protested against the Hasina government were involved in a clash with some supporters of her Awami League party who were trying to mark the 49th anniversary of the assassination of Bangladesh’s founding leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, police said.

Amranul Islam, the officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi police station, said students tried to break up the event and also checked the phones of the Awami League supporters, but no case had been filed.

“A few people were injured and students handed over about 10 of Hasina’s supporters to the police,” Amranul told BenarNews.

The Awami League supporters were holding their event on the premises of the founding president’s residence in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area. 

Under the Hasina government, Aug. 15 was a national holiday in remembrance of her father who was assassinated with most of his family on that date in 1975 at his Dhanmondi residence. Hasina and her sister were abroad at the time.

This year, Hasina who had fled to India after resigning last week, urged her supporters to mark that dark day in Bangladeshi history. The interim government has canceled the date as a national holiday. 

Nahid Islam, an adviser in the interim government and a prominent student leader of the mass protests that led to Hasina’s resignation, slammed the students for their action. 

“Checking someone’s phone, harassing innocent persons is reprehensible,” he said in a Facebook post.

“Our student-citizen uprising aimed to abolish the fascist system and establish security and justice in society,” said Nahid, who was named one of the interim government’s members on Aug. 8.

The interim government was sworn in three days after Hasina resigned and fled following protests by university students that turned deadly and became a mass movement demanding she step down.

More than 212 people were killed during the student protests after the police were sent to quell them, aided by Awami League supporters. The death toll rose to more than 300 after citizens from other walks of life joined the student protests.

Students Against Discrimination, the main force behind the initial protests, said it did not support acts such as checking people’s phones, which apparently police and Awami League supporters had done during the student protests.

“Such actions are reviving old paradigms of discrimination. So don’t do anything that destroys the normal course of a citizen’s private life including phone checks,” Rifat Rashid, a coordinator at the group, said in a statement.

“We call on everyone to take a peaceful stand and stop the conspirators across the country and stay on the streets to ensure that normal public life becomes more beautiful and orderly.”

A veteran of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war, Kader Siddique, who said he was a close associate of Mujibur, visited the founding leader’s house Thursday to pay his respects but people gathered there told him to leave, he said.

“I saw many excited people there, I saw students. They asked me to leave, and I left. My car was broken into. Those who spoke with me behaved well,” he told BenarNews.

He blamed the Awami League for the turn of events, including the vandalism of Mujib’s statues after Hasina left, saying the party’s undemocratic actions in the 15 years it was in power are what had led to people disrespecting the founding leader.

“Awami League and Sheikh Hasina’s main mistake was that they ran the state for 15 years but could not make Bangabandhu [Sheikh Mujibur Rahman] acceptable as a national icon,” he said.

“They made him just the Awami League’s [icon].” 

More cases filed against Hasina

Meanwhile three more murder cases were filed against Hasina on Thursday, bringing the total of such cases against the ex-PM to six.

A Dhaka metropolitan magistrate ordered the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station to accept a case filed against 11 people, including Hasina, for the death of an auto rickshaw driver named Shahabuddin, who was allegedly killed by a bullet to the head on Aug 5.

Another metropolitan magistrate ordered the Mohammadpur police station to accept a case against Hasina and 15 others for the death of a school student in the capital’s Mohammadpur area on July 19.

According to the case statement, Jobaid Hossain Imon, 12, was killed when a member of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite police force, fired from a helicopter during the mass protests.

Thursday’s third case against Hasina was filed with the International Crimes Tribunal, which Hasina had set up in 2010 to try alleged criminals from the 1971 war against Pakistan.

The interim government’s law adviser, Asif Nazrul, told reporters on Wednesday that the administration had decided to try cases to do with the killings during the protests at the same tribunal.