DHAKA: Thousands of protesters set fire to the home of Bangladesh’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.
Witnesses said 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.
The rally was organized alongside a broader call, dubbed “Bulldozer Procession,” to disrupt Hasina’s scheduled 9 p.m. online address on Wednesday.
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.
Tensions have been escalating in Bangladesh since August 2024, when mass protests forced Hasina to flee to neighboring India.
The interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has struggled to maintain control as protests and unrest have continued. Demonstrators have attacked symbols of Hasina’s government, including the house of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which was first set ablaze in August.
A symbol of the country’s establishment, the house is where Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal), as he is popularly known, declared Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.
A few years later it became the site of a national tragedy. Mujibur Rahman and most of his family were assassinated at the house in 1975. Hasina, who survived the attack, later transformed the building into a museum dedicated to her father’s legacy.
“They can demolish a building, but not the history. History takes its revenge,” Hasina said in her speech on Wednesday.
She 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.
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Bangladesh protesters torch ousted PM Hasina’s father’s home
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Bangladesh protesters torch ousted PM Hasina’s father’s home
- The house symbolized Bangladesh’s establishment, as Mujibur Rahman declared independence from there
- Much of Sheikh Hasina Wajid’s family, including her father, was assassinated in the same building in 1975
Hundreds of migrants land in Greece after search operation at sea
ATHENS: Greece’s Coast Guard rescued about 545 migrants from a fishing boat off Europe’s southernmost island of Gavdos on Friday, one of the biggest groups to reach the country in recent months.
The migrants were found during a Greek search operation some 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) off Gavdos, a Coast Guard statement said. They are all well and are being taken to the port of Agia Galini on the nearby island of Crete, it added.
Greece was on the front line of a 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa landed on its shores before moving on to other European countries, mainly Germany.
Flows have ebbed since then, but both Crete and Gavdos — the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast — have seen a steep rise in migrant boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shores over the past year and deadly accidents remain common along that route.
Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc’s pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said deportation of rejected asylum seekers will be a priority.
The migrants were found during a Greek search operation some 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) off Gavdos, a Coast Guard statement said. They are all well and are being taken to the port of Agia Galini on the nearby island of Crete, it added.
Greece was on the front line of a 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa landed on its shores before moving on to other European countries, mainly Germany.
Flows have ebbed since then, but both Crete and Gavdos — the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast — have seen a steep rise in migrant boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shores over the past year and deadly accidents remain common along that route.
Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc’s pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said deportation of rejected asylum seekers will be a priority.
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