Vandalism, arson spread
Houses of Awami League leaders were attacked and torched, and murals and busts of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were demolished and defaced in nearly two dozen districts yesterday.
A day after the Dhanmondi-32 residence of Sheikh Mujib was torched and torn down, protesters attacked, ransacked, and set fire to the house of Obaidul Quader, general secretary of AL and former road, transport and bridges minister, in Noakhali's Companiganj.
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During the attack on the house in Bora Rajapur Mohalla area around 1:00pm, the two-storey building and tin-roofed rooms of Quader's younger brother Abdul Quader Mirza, president of Companiganj AL, and Shahadat Mirza, former mayor of Basurhat municipality, were also ransacked.
A car parked in front of the house was also torched.
No one was home then.
In Rajshahi, a group of protesters set fire to the three-storey house of Shahriar Alam, former state minister for foreign affairs, in Chaksinga Mohalla in Bagha upazila, reports UNB.
Witnesses said over 100 people from Bagha and Charghat upazilas went there on motorbikes and set the house on fire around noon.
Firefighters doused the flames around 2:00pm.
Protesters also attacked and torched the house of AL leader Abu Sayeed in Shalgaria village of Pabna yesterday.
They broke the gate, ransacked the house, and then set it on fire yesterday evening, said witnesses.
Abu Sayeed, vice-president of Pabna Sadar upazila AL and also former chairman of Varara Union Parishad, is accused in a case filed over an attack on demonstrators that left two students dead during the July uprising.
He has been in hiding since.
In Kishoreganj, protesters stormed the Kishoreganj residence of former president Abdul Hamid around 10:00pm and looted valuables before torching a motorbike parked there.
Earlier in the evening, they demolished the district AL office with an excavator.
In Cumilla yesterday, protesters demolished two murals of Sheikh Mujib in the city.
They took a bulldozer to the Cumilla Judge Court premises around 4:00pm and demolished a mural in front of a court building.
Addressing the people present at the scene, Rashedul Haque, secretary of the Cumilla city unit of Students Against Discrimination, said, "We will demolish all signs of fascism."
Later on, another mural of Sheikh Mujib was bulldozed at the Cumilla City Park.
In Narayanganj, pro-BNP lawyers demolished murals and a bust of Sheikh Mujib at the Narayanganj Judge Court premises and the offices of deputy commissioner, and superintendent of police in the city around noon yesterday.
Construction workers were called in and instructed to demolish them with hammers and crowbars, said witnesses.
Narayanganj Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Zahidul Islam Mia said he was not aware of the incident.
In the evening, protesters vandalised former AL MP Shamim Osman's grandfather's house in Chashara.
In Narsingdi, demonstrators defaced a mural of Sheikh Mujib on the District and Sessions Judge Court premises around noon.
Some 10 pro-AL Bangladesh Chhatra League activists, who were then being taken to court by police, were also attacked.
In Tangail, an AL office was demolished, and the houses of a former lawmaker and a former municipality mayor were ransacked in the district town.
Witnesses said several hundred people went to the AL office in Main Road area around 4:00pm and demolished it with an excavator.
The houses of former Tangail-7 lawmaker Khan Ahmed Shuvo and former mayor Jamilur Rahman Miron in Thanapara area were torched around 5:00pm.
Some people were seen looting valuables, said witnesses.
In Bagerhat, six murals of Sheikh Mujib were defaced in the Muktijoddha Complex, Municipality Park, Shaheed Minar areas in the town, and in Mongla Upazila Parishad Complex, Mongla Children Park, and Muktijoddha Bhaban yesterday afternoon.
In Barishal, the house of senior AL leader Amir Hossain Amu was torched in Bogura Road area of the city around 2:00am yesterday.
Protesters also demolished a mural of Sheikh Mujib at the Barishal Press Club in the afternoon.
In Jamalpur's Narundi Railway Station area, the ancestral home of actress and filmmaker Meher Afroz Shawon was set on fire in the evening. Shawon is the daughter of twice AL MP Begum Tahura Ali and engineer Mohammad Ali, who had sought the AL ticket in the last polls.
The house of AL Organising Secretary and former state minister Mirza Azam was also set on fire in the town yesterday evening.
Former state minister Murad Hasan's ancestral home was torched around 10:00pm in Daulatpur village of Sarishabari upazila.
In Bogura, protesters demolished a mural of Sheikh Mujib and vandalised offices of AL, Jatiya Party, and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal in the town last night.
Demonstrators also set fire to several properties, including the Feni district AL office and the houses of ex-MPs Lt Gen (retd) Masud Uddin Chowdhury, and Alauddin Ahmed Chowdhury Nasim.
In Thakurgaon, protesters defaced five murals of Sheikh Mujib, Sheikh Russel, and Sheikh Moni in the town.
Bangabandhu's murals were vandalised at four places in Kurigram yesterday.
In Manikganj, protesters defaced Bangabandhu Square in front of the deputy commissioner's office yesterday evening.
The front part of the house of former food minister and Naogaon AL General Secretary Sadhan Chandra Majumder was demolished and the house was torched around 5:30pm.
In Habiganj, Bangabandhu's mural, located in front of the deputy commissioner's office, was vandalised last night.
In Patuakhali, a mural of Sheikh Mujib near a Rab camp was defaced by protesters yesterday morning, said witnesses.
Another mural of Mujib at the Brahmanbaria Government College was vandalised yesterday afternoon.
Two murals of Mujib were demolished with an excavator in Boda of Panchagarh.
In Khulna's Digholia upazila, demonstrators vandalised the guest house and other structures on reportedly Sheikh Hasina's familial land.
On Wednesday night, protesters demolished houses of AL leaders and defaced murals of Sheikh Mujib in at least 10 districts, according to our correspondents.
The districts are Khulna, Kushtia, Chattogram, Sylhet, Rangpur, Barishal, Mymensingh, Chuadanga, Kishoreganj, and Pabna.
[Our correspondents from respective districts contributed to this report.]
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