Houses of Quader, Amu, Tofail burnt, vandalised
Obaidul Quader, who once vowed he would never run, sat in an undisclosed location as the flames reached his Companiganj home around 1pm today (6 February)
Erasure of structures and installations linked to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League continued at full force throughout the day (6 February) with houses of top party figures facing protester's wrath across the country.
Since the demolition of Mujib's Dhanmondi 32 residence started Wednesday evening, agitated people have been storming establishments linked to the party or its legacy, chanting slogans mostly against Hasina, saying they wanted to eliminate all traces of fascism in the country.
In Companiganj, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader's house was destroyed by a crowd that included students and locals, starting around 1pm yesterday. The protesters set fire to furniture in the house, the roof and a car parked in front of the building.
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Earlier in the morning, a post on Noakhali district's Anti-Discrimination Student Movement from its Facebook page stated, "Revolutionaries of Noakhali, be ready with bulldozers. March to Quader's house! Today at 11am."
In Jhalakathi, the residence of former MP Amir Hossain Amu was vandalised in the afternoon. The attackers also destroyed Firoza Amu Homeopathy Medical College.
In Bhola, a group of agitated crowd burnt and vandalised the house of another veteran AL leader, Tofail Ahmed, on Gazipur road in Bhola in the early hours of yesterday. Protesters marched towards the house with a procession around 12:30am and later, they set fire to it.
In Narayanganj, agitated protesters stormed the house of Shamim Osman and started demolishing it around 7pm.
The office of Awami League's Cumilla city unit and the house of ex-MP AKM Bahauddin Bahar were vandalised and set on fire in the early hours of today.
In Jamalpur, agitators burnt the house of Mirza Azam, AL leader and former MP, yesterday. First, people brought a bulldozer to Azam's house in the Bakultala area. At one point, when the bulldozer broke down, the students and general public set fire to the house.
In a related incident, the residence of Jamalpur district AL adviser and father of actress Meher Afroz Shaon, Engineer Mohammad Ali, located in Norundi Bazar, Jamalpur, was also attacked and torched.
In Rajshahi, agitated protesters set fire to the house of Shahriar Alam, former state minister for foreign affairs, yesterday noon. Protesters set fire to Shahriar's ancestral home in Arani, Bagha upazila. The blaze rapidly spread throughout the house.
It all began when Sheikh Mujib's Dhanmondi 32 residence in the capital was ravaged by a raging crowd on Wednesday, marking the six-month anniversary of the ouster of the authoritarian regime led by Hasina on 5 August last year.
According to the agitators, the house, long associated with Mujib and his family, symbolises "authoritarianism and fascism". They vented their anger particularly about Hasina, who stands accused of mass killing during the student-led mass movement.
Structures linked to Mujib, his family destroyed
Meanwhile, in Savar, protesters vandalised a mural of Mujib at Muktir Mor in Savar's municipal area early yesterday. At around 1am, a group of over a hundred people gathered at the site and used hammers and other metal tools to damage parts of the mural.
After the initial vandalism, the site was renamed "Teen Shaheed Chattar" in honour of three individuals killed in the Savar during the July uprising, with a banner installed at the location.
Earlier, on Wednesday night, students at Jahangirnagar University removed the names of residential halls named after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members, as well as erased all plaques, graffiti, and wall writings associated with them.
The students painted over the mural of Sheikh Mujib and also demolished the mural of Hasina.
Also, Sheikh Russel Hall was renamed "Bijoy-24" by students.
In Chattogram, murals of Mujib and his youngest son, Sheikh Russel, were vandalised in front of two dormitories named after them at the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) in Raozan.
The students announced that Sheikh Russel Hall would be renamed "Shahid Abu Sayed Hall".
Liberation War sculptures damaged
In Jashore, sculptures and murals of Mujib and Hasina were destroyed across Jashore. The protesters also vandalised the sculpture depicting scenes from the Liberation War on the wall of the Monihar Victory Column.
They also vandalised six establishments in Narail, including the mural of Sheikh Mujib and memorial plaques commemorating the 1952-71 movements. The acts of vandalism took place between yesterday afternoon and evening, with bulldozers being used to destroy the structures.
In Rajshahi, Mujib's mural at Rajshahi College was also damaged around noon yesterday. The students at Rajshahi College threw shoes, hit a mural with sticks, and began vandalising the mural on the campus.
In Narayanganj, BNP lawyers and activists vandalised three portraits of Mujib in front of the deputy commissioner's office, the superintendent of police's office, and the District and Sessions Judge's court today. They also ransacked the Bangabandhu Corner on the ground floor of the DC office. Pro-BNP and pro-Jamaat lawyers were reportedly present during the incident.
Activists of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement vandalised a mural of Mujib at Brahmanbaria Government College in the district using hammers and axes this afternoon.
In Khulna, several murals of Sheikh Mujib were demolished by students. The incident took place at around 9:30pm Wednesday.
The agitated students vandalised Sheikh Hasina's guest house, situated on the banks of the Bhairab River in Khulna's Dighalia upazila.
The incident occurred around 9:30pm when protesting students gathered in a procession and started vandalising the property.
This guest house, spread over four bighas of land in Khulna's Dighalia upazila, is named after Begum Fazilatun Nesa Mujib, wife of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The property, purchased during the Pakistan period, also includes a large warehouse, now commonly referred to as 'Sheikh Hasina's Godown.'
Sheikh Hasina and her sister, Sheikh Rehana, last visited the site on 6 January 2023.
