Death sentence for Sheikh Hasina: What’s happening in Bangladesh now amid reports of violence and shutdown | World News
Police use stun grenades to disperse protesters gathering outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s former leader and the father of the country’s ousted Prime Miner Sheikh Hasina following the verdict against her, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (AP Photo)
Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Miner Sheikh Hasina and one of her close aides were on Monday sentenced to death a tribunal court over charges of ‘crimes against humanity’. The crimes were allegedly committed during her adminration’s crackdown on student-led protests last year that killed hundreds of people. The protests that followed eventually toppled her 15-year rule.
But violence ensued in the country as the International Crimes Tribunal based in Dhaka passed its sentence against Hasina and former Home Miner Asaduzzaman Khan for their alleged involvement in the use of deadly force against protesters last year. Bangladeshi media website Daily Star reported two schools and at least eight vehicles being torched in five dricts of the country on Monday.
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Sheikh Hasina’s party, Bangladesh Awami League, had earlier called for a complete shutdown for two days till the tribunal’s verdict was announced. The Awami League has now called for a national shutdown on Tuesday to protest the verdict. Unrest was reported in Dhanmondi 32, the site where Hasina’s late father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s home is situated as a group of student protesters resorted to demonstrations near the site, Dhaka Tribune reported.
Protesters throw stones and shout slogans during a standoff with police outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s former leader and the father of the country’s ousted Prime Miner Sheikh Hasina after the verdict against her, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (AP Photo)
Arson and bomb attacks
A violent standoff between demonstrators and security forces unfolded near Sheikh Mujibur’s horic home as protesters attempted a symbolic demolition. “Students of Dhaka College have brought two bulldozers…announcing they will demolish the Dhanmondi 32 house after the verdict,” a police officer was quoted as saying Dhaka Tribune.
Arson and crude bomb attacks also continued in the country, with reports suggesting more than 50 crude bomb explosions nationwide which has reportedly left at least three people dead.
A report in Daily Star stated that a masked person set fire to the Jashodal branch of Grameen Bank on Monday, and locals swiftly doused the flames. Locals said that the suspect chanted “Joy Bangla” ahead of setting fire to the bank’s branch.
Hasina reacts
Sheikh Hasina has responded to the verdict of death sentence and said the charges were unjustified, and argued that she and her former home miner Khan “acted in good faith and were trying to minimize the loss of life.”
Calling the verdict “biased and politically motivated,” Hasina said, “We lost control of the situation, but to characterize what happened as a premeditated assault on citizens is simply to misread the facts.”
Yunus and BNP hail the verdict
In a statement, Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus hailed the verdict against Sheikh Hasina and said the tribunal court’s judgement offered justice to the thousands who were harmed in the uprising. “No one, regardless of power, is above the law,” Yunus said, adding that the deicision to use lethal force against young people and children violated laws and the basic bond between government and citizens, AP reported.
The Bangladesh National Party, being headed former Prime Miner Khaleda Zia also hailed the verdict against Hasina. In a post on Facebook, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir wrote it wasn’t just a judgment on Sheikh Hasina’s crimes, but a “burial of all forms of dictatorship on this country’s soil.”
(with inputs from agencies)
