Awami League leaders’ houses torched as vandalism spreads

Protesters in Bangladesh have attacked and torched houses of leaders of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League across the country, and murals of the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were demolished and defaced in nearly two dozen districts, according to media reports.

The unrest sparked over a live online address by Hasina on Wednesday night, when protestors targeted the house of Sheikh Mujib. A house of Awami League Presidium Member Sheikh Selim in Dhaka’s Banani was set on fire around 1.30 am on Friday.

Security concerns prevented the Fire Service vehicles from accessing the site until 2:45 am, the Fire Service control room duty officer was quoted as saying by the United News of Bangladesh (UNB).

A day after the Dhanmondi-32 residence of Sheikh Mujib was torched and torn down, protesters ransacked and set the house of Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Awami League (AL), in Noakhali’s Companiganj on fire, the Daily Star newspaper reported on Friday.

During the attack on the house in the Bora Rajapur Mohalla area around 1:00 pm, the two-storey building and tin-roofed rooms of Quader’s younger brother Abdul Quader Mirza, president of Companiganj AL.

Yunus urges citizens to stop attacks

Bangladesh’s interim government led by Muhammad Yunus on Friday called for peace and urged citizens to immediately restore law and order, putting an end to the three-day mayhem of attacks on properties belonging to deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s family and leaders of her party Awami League. The interim government on Thursday blamed Hasina’s “provocative” speech for sparking “unintended and unexpected” violence.