A year after Rangpur’s Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayeed fell to police bullets during the July uprising of 2024, Bangladesh continues to be on the boil.
Clashes erupted in Gopalgunj, the home district of deposed former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday killing four persons.
The clashes took place between alleged Hasina supporters and the security forces in the city which is also home to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s mausoleum.
Leaders of the newly-formed National Citizen’s Party, which has been on a tour of Bangladesh to commemorate the first anniversary of the July uprising, gave a call of March for Gopalganj, a traditional Awami League stronghold.
According to reports in Bangladesh media, supporters of the now banned Awami League and its students’ wing Chhatra League went around Gopalganj shouting the Bangladesh Liberation war slogan “Joy Bangla.”
They also stormed the proposed rally site of Bangladesh’s newest political party at the municipal park.
The NCP leaders had to flee the rally site escorted by the police.
The convoy came under attack near the Gopalganj Government College and the NCP leadership had to take shelter in the district superintendent of police's office.
Armed vehicles provided by the army rescued the NCP leaders and escorted them out of Gopalganj.
A police vehicle and another vehicle assigned to a sub-district executive officer were torched before the NCP’s meeting. Clashes went on till late in the evening during which the four persons identified as Dipto Saha, Ramzan Kazi, Imon and Sohail Mollah.
“Our commitment towards Gopalganj is similar to the rest of Bangladesh. We oppose the political discrimination towards the people of Gopalganj. We will free Gopalganj and entire Bangladesh from the Muktibadi terror and fascism,” NCP convenor Nahid Islam wrote on his Facebook page. “For years Awami League has endangered the lives of Gopalganj residents, brought infamy to the Liberation war and committed injustice on those following Sanatan dharma. We will change the situation.”
On Thursday afternoon, NCP leaders will address a meeting at Faridpur.
Islam has blamed the interim administration and the intelligence agencies over the violence.
“Had the administration and the intelligence agencies taken the correct steps at the right time this situation could have been avoided. The interim government and the administration have to take the blame. We want a proper investigation and trial of the terrorists involved in Wednesday’s violence,” Islam said.
Late on Wednesday night, the deposed former PM Sheikh Hasina in a statement said, the marchers had plans to demolish Bangabandhu’s mausoleum.
In February this year Bangabandhu’s house in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi where he was assassinated 50 years ago along with most of his family members was demolished.
“The people of Bangladesh have witnessed a conspiracy to erase the identity of the people of Bangladesh by the demolition of Bangabandhu’s mausoleum at Tungipara by March for Gopalganj. Bangladesh and Bangabandhu are inseparable. Any attack on either of the two will not be tolerated by the Bengali people. Residents of Gopalganj did not remain quiet today,” Hasina said in her statement.