Dhaka: The Awami League party’s efforts to commemorate the assassination of former president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka were thwarted on Thursday, even as a top official said Bangladesh’s interim government will decide on seeking former premier Sheikh Hasina’s extradition from India.
A large number of men armed with sticks were seen standing at intersections and roads leading to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum at 32, Dhanmondi Road, which was vandalised and set ablaze after Hasina stepped down and fled to India on August 5.
These men barred Awami League supporters and others from gathering at the museum to mark the anniversary of the death of Rahman, considered the father of the nation for his role in the liberation war of 1971. Several people were reportedly beaten up for coming to the area while at least 10 people were handed over to police.
The Awami League observes National Mourning Day on August 15, but the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus cancelled the national holiday instituted by the previous administration.
Bangladesh Police erected barricades on roads near the museum and students and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) were seen checking for Awami League supporters. Personnel from the army and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were also deployed in the area to beef up security.
Mujibur Rahman was assassinated along with his wife, his brother, four sons and two daughters-in-law by a group of army officers at his residence at 32, Dhanmondi Road in 1975. Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana survived as they were in Germany at the time.
In a message issued through her son on Tuesday, Hasina, currently at an undisclosed location in India, had called on people to observe the National Mourning Day.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain told Reuters on Thursday that the interim government will decide whether to ask India to extradite Hasina as cases rise against her, including murder accusations. He said he didn’t want to speculate but noted Hasina was facing “so many cases”.
If the home and law ministries decided, “we have to ask for her…return to Bangladesh”, Hossain said.
“That creates an embarrassing situation for the Indian government,” he said, adding that India “knows this and I am sure they will take care of it”. He didn’t elaborate. There was no immediate response from Indian officials to Hossain’s remarks.
Hasina and members of her Cabinet have been named in two murder cases. Ataur Rahman, deputy director of the investigation cell of the International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic court, said a third case had been launched against 10 people, including Hasina, for murder, torture and genocide during recent protests.
BNP’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal organised a demonstration at Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka on Thursday to demand the trial of Hasina for her alleged role in the killing of students and citizens. The Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir gathered at Shahbagh to ensure that the Awami League could not cause any “untoward incident”.
In a separate development, the interim government is expected to be expanded with the inclusion of at least two advisers on Friday, people familiar with the matter said. The president’s press secretary, Joynal Abedin, told HT the swearing-in of the new members will be held at 4pm on Friday but he didn’t say how many new faces will be included.
Yunus was sworn in along with 16 advisers on August 8.
