Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus has urged the citizens to maintain law and order on Friday as the residence of the country’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was set ablaze by unknown assailants earlier this week.
In a statement, Yunus acknowledged the understandable anger among activists who have endured year after year of oppression at the hands of the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Still, he implored the public to respect the rule of law: “Let us show the world that Bangladesh is a country which respects the rule of law.”
Speaking sympathetically for the outrage of these activists, Yunus pointed out that Hasina, even in New Delhi exile, could mobilize her cohorts at home. He stressed that the people of Bangladesh, as a result of their revolt last summer against the Hasina regime, now must re-commit to civil and human rights as well as the principles of legality.
The call for peace comes after a violent incident earlier this week, in which a mob vandalized and torched the property associated with Rahman, located in the Dhanmondi 32 area. This incident happened soon after Hasina called upon her supporters to protest against Yunus’s interim government through an online address.
Demonstrators came in bulldozers, threatening initially to raze the house but eventually vandalizing it by breaking the main gate and setting parts of the property on fire. The attackers referred to the residence as a symbol of “authoritarianism and fascism,” promising to rid what they termed ‘Mujibism’ from the country.
He condemned the actions, saying that attacks on properties only give the former regime an opportunity to win international sympathy and propagate misleading propaganda. He also said the interim government is pursuing the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
Hasina, in turn, issued a statement from exile accusing Yunus of plotting against her and portraying Bangladesh as a “land of terrorists and militants.” She said she was sad over the current state of affairs, when Bangladesh was once considered a model for development in the world.
Hasina lambasted Yunus’s rising to power and claimed that he had managed to do so through money and at the cost of many lives, stating that the country is now bathed in chaos and upheaval.
