Wave of attacks overnight also targeted houses and businesses belonging to Hasina’s Awami League supporters.
Thousands of protesters in Bangladesh have demolished and set fire to the home of the country’s founding leader, as his daughter, ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, delivered a fiery social media speech calling on her supporters to stand against the interim government.
The attack on Wednesday night was prompted by a speech Hasina planned to give to supporters from exile in neighbouring India, where she fled last August after a deadly student-led uprising against her 15-year rule. Critics had accused her of suppressing dissent.
The house in the capital, Dhaka, had been home to Hasina’s late father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971. He was assassinated there in 1975. Hasina later turned the home into a museum.
According to news reports, several thousand protesters, some armed with sticks, hammers and other tools, gathered around the historic house and independence monument, while others brought a crane and excavator to demolish the building on Wednesday night.
Photos posted on social media and published by news organisations showed the building almost levelled to the ground, while parts of it were completely burned.
The country’s leading English-language Daily Star reported early on Thursday that a wave of attacks overnight also targeted several houses and businesses belonging to Hasina’s Awami League supporters.
The rally was organised alongside a broader call, dubbed “Bulldozer Procession”, to disrupt Hasina’s scheduled online address on Wednesday night.
‘Symbol of fascism’
Protesters, many aligned with the Students Against Discrimination group, had expressed their fury over Hasina’s speech, which they viewed as a challenge to the newly formed interim government.
Hasnat Abdullah, a student leader of the group, had warned media outlets against Hasina’s speech and announced on Facebook on Wednesday that “tonight Bangladesh will be freed from the pilgrimage site of fascism”.
Student Mahmudur Rahman, 18, told AFP news agency that he joined the protest because he believed that it was justified to uproot the “symbol of fascism”.
Another protester, Mohammad Arefin, said there was no reason for the house to remain standing.
“Since we, the students, have formed the government through revolution, we find it legitimate to demolish it.”
The protesters also chanted slogans criticising India, where Hasina has lived in exile since fleeing Bangladesh last August.
An interim government in Bangladesh led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus has sought Hasina’s extradition but India has not responded.
Many of the protesters also chanted slogans demanding Hasina’s execution for hundreds of deaths during last year’s uprising against her, one of the country’s worst upheavals since independence. Hasina has urged a United Nations investigation into the deaths.
The ousted prime minister has also been accused of overseeing extrajudicial killings and suppressing opposition voices during her 15-year rule.
In her speech on Wednesday, Hasina remained defiant, saying, “They can demolish a building, but not the history. History takes its revenge.”
She also urged the people of Bangladesh to stand against the interim government, accusing them of seizing power in an unconstitutional manner.
The student-led movement behind the protests has voiced plans to dismantle the country’s 1972 constitution, which they argue embodies the legacy of her father’s rule.