Bangladesh launched a security operation over the weekend targeting Awami League supporters after ousted leader Sheikh Hasina appeared in a Facebook broadcast from exile in neighbouring India, triggering violence.
Security forces arrested 1,308 people across the country from Saturday night until noon Sunday, most of whom were reportedly linked to Hasina’s Awami League party.
Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, head of the Interior Ministry in the interim government, dubbed it “Operation Devil Hunt,” telling reporters that it will “continue until we uproot the devils.”
Hasina, who fled to India on August 5 last year amid a student-led uprising, spoke to her followers on social media in a live address on February 5 marking six months since her fall. She asked her supporters to take to the streets to protest against the transitional government, calling it “illegal and unconstitutional.”
On Friday, supporters of Hasina reportedly attacked and seriously injured around 20 students in central Gazipur district.
With members of Students Against Discrimination – the protest group credited with triggering the uprising against Hasina – demanding action, security forces in a joint operation arrested more than 65 people in Gazipur, including 40 members of the Awami League, according to Chowdhury Md Jaber Sadek, Gazipur district’s superintendent of police.
Law enforcement agencies have also set up checkpoints in various parts of the country.
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The interim administration of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has also opened a “Command Center” to improve law and order and establish coordination among the security forces, including the armed forces, his Press Secretary, Shafiqul Alam, said at a news briefing in the capital Dhaka.
Hasina speech
In her speech, Sheikh Hasina accused the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus of seizing power unconstitutionally. She urged her supporters to resist this government, framing her narrative around the notion of an unlawful power grab.
She called on her supporters, particularly the student wing of her party, to unite against the current administration.
Hasina’s speech came in the aftermath of the demolition and burning of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s historic residence in Dhaka. She remarked on the incident, framing it as an attack on Bangladesh’s history and independence, asserting that “They may destroy a building, but they won’t be able to erase the history.”
She also made allegations that Muhammad Yunus had planned to kill her, which heightened the tension and contributed to the protests following her speech.
Following Hasina’s speech, angry protesters torched and vandalized the house-turned-museum of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, and other structures named after his family members across the country.
Yunus, who took office as head of the transitional government after the uprising against Hasina, during which over 1,000 people were killed, viewed Hasina’s action from India as a “hostile act” towards Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry also summoned the acting Indian high commissioner in Dhaka. Allowing Hasina to conduct such activities from India was “not conducive to the efforts at establishing a healthy relationship between the two countries,” the ministry said.
India reaction
India has distanced itself from the virtual speech made by former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that triggered violence in Dhaka.
The Indian Foreign Ministry summoned Bangladeshi acting High Commissioner Nural Islam in New Delhi and told him that the comments attributed to Hasina “have been made in her individual capacity in which India has no role to play,” officials said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said: “Conflating this with the government of India’s position is not going to help add positivity to bilateral relations.”
Relations between Dhaka and New Delhi remain at a critical juncture since Hasina fled to India last year and the Muhammad Yunus-led transitional government assumed office on August 8.
After a formal request to New Delhi from Dhaka to return Hasina home, where she faces cases of genocide as well as crimes against humanity, India has yet to respond to Bangladesh.
The Indian government early this week told Parliament that Bangladesh had sought the extradition of Hasina “for offenses allegedly committed before she came to India on August 5, 2024.”
Hasina ruled Bangladesh for 15 years which ended at the peak of a student movement last summer.
