Dhaka, Aug 14 (PTI) Student leaders in Bangladesh on Wednesday vowed to resist any potential “chaos” by Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League party activists following the interim government’s move to cancel a national holiday on August 15, marking the assassination of the country’s founder and the deposed prime minister’s father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“The leaders and activists of the Awami League will try to create chaos on Thursday in the name of observing mourning day. We will remain on the streets to resist any such attempts,” Sarjis Alam, a key coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, told journalists at a rally titled “Sampriti Samabesh” held at Shahbagh area here.
He warned that no one will be allowed even to pray gayebana namaj-e-janaza if anyone tries to stage a “counter-coup”, the Daily Star newspaper reported.
“We will be on the streets until a government elected by the people assumes power,” Sarjis said.
In a statement in Bengali posted by her US-based son Sajeeb Wazed Joy on his X handle on Tuesday, Hasina urged Bangladeshis to observe the day peacefully, offering wreaths at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum premises and through prayers.
Bangladesh’s interim government on Tuesday cancelled the national holiday on August 15 following a meeting between Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and different political parties, excluding the Awami League, a day earlier.
Speaking at the rally, another Abdul Hannan Masud said that after fleeing to India Hasina is now trying to hatch various conspiracies.
“We want to tell her that we won’t allow any more conspiracy in this country. The victory that we achieved in exchange for blood and life will be fulfilled through carrying out a reform of the state,” Masud said.
Soon after Hasina resigned and left the country, an angry mob virtually set a museum dedicated to Bangabandhu on fire. The museum was originally Bangbandhu’s private residence, where he was killed along with his family members in a military coup staged by a group of junior officers on August 15, 1975, while Hasina, her two minor children, and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana were in Germany on a short visit.
Hasina has also expressed anguish over the burning down of the Bangabandhu Museum during the violence, saying the “memory and inspiration, which we had to live, was burnt into ashes”.
“This was an extreme defamation of someone…under whose leadership we became an independent nation. I seek justice from the countrymen for this act,” she said. PTI SCY AKJ SCY SCY
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