Protests, vandalism at Dhanmondi 32
A group who are regarded as revolutionary students and people staged a protest at the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi-32 in the capital on Wednesday evening.
The demonstration began around 8:00pm when protesters broke the entrance and entered the building premises. Until the filing of this report, a large number of demonstrators were marching in the area, chanting slogans against dictatorship, fascism, and the Awami League.
The protest came following a call for a ‘bulldozer procession’ towards Dhanmondi-32 on Facebook, centering a scheduled virtual speech by fallen dictator Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in the face of the July uprising. At the same time, the demonstrators announced a ‘march to Dhanmondi-32’ programme.
In the afternoon, Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, convener of Inqilab Mancha and a member of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee, made multiple posts on Facebook about vandalising the building at Dhanmondi. The protest was initially scheduled for 9:00 pm, but was later moved up to 8:00 pm.
Even before the scheduled time, a group of demonstrators marched from the national museum at Shahbagh to Dhanmondi. They broke the main entrance and began vandalising the building.
Around 7:00 pm, Hasnat Abdullah, convener of the anti-discrimination student movement, wrote in a Facebook post, "Tonight, Bangladesh will be free from the pilgrimage site of fascism."
On 5 August, aggrieved people carried out similar vandalism at the building and set it on fire following the ouster of the Awami League regime. Since then, the house has been largely abandoned.