The murder of a prominent July Uprising leader has plunged Bangladesh into fresh tumult, with mobs storming and torching the offices of two leading Dhaka newspapers late on Thursday after accusing them of being "Delhi’s lapdog", trapping journalists and other staff inside for hours.
In Mymensingh city, a young Hindu man was beaten, hanged from a tree and burnt for allegedly committing blasphemy. The interim government of Bangladesh condemned the killing. Multiple videos of the gruesome incident emerged on social media, triggering shock in India.
Elsewhere, protesters vandalised the already demolished structure at 32 Dhanmandi, the home of the country's founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Stones were thrown at the assistant Indian high commissioner’s residence in Chattogram.
The violence erupted after the head of the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, confirmed the death of Inquilab Mancha leader Sharif Osman Hadi in a televised address to the nation.
Hadi, a key leader of the protest that felled the Sheikh Hasina government in August last year, had been shot in the head by masked gunmen in Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area a few days ago. He died at a Singapore hospital on Thursday night. Hadi was a candidate for the general election to be held in February.
Supporters block the Shahbagh Square as they protest demanding justice for the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, in Dhaka Reuters
Mancha supporters chanted anti-India slogans, alleging that Hadi’s assailants had fled to India. They called on the interim government to close the Indian high commission until the killers had been returned. The Bangladesh government has asked India several times to extradite Hasina.
Newspapers targeted
Protesters in Dhaka attacked the offices of Bangla daily Prothom Alo and the English newspaper, The Daily Star, in the capital’s Karwan Bazar area near the Shahbagh intersection.
Reports said the mobs vandalised several floors of the Prothom Alo office while journalists and staff cowered inside. Friday’s edition could not be published, the newspaper said, apologising to its readers and saying such a thing had never happened since the daily was launched 27 years ago.
“Due to a large-scale attack, vandalism and arson at the Prothom Alo office last night, it has not been possible to maintain normal operations. As a result, today’s printed edition of Prothom Alo could not be published. Its online portal is also temporarily unavailable,” the newspaper said on its website after it reappeared online.
“With deep regret, we state that on the night of 18 December, the Prothom Alo office located in Karwan Bazar, Dhaka, was subjected to a deliberate and organised attack. At the time of the attack, on-duty journalists were engaged in operating the online news portal as well as preparing the print edition for 19 December.
“In the face of this terrorist attack, Prothom Alo employees were left completely unprotected and their lives were put at serious risk. The attackers extensively vandalised the office building and then set it on fire. Due to the prolonged blaze, the building was gutted and the assets and valuable documents stored there were reduced to ashes."
“This terrorist attack is a clear example of a direct assault on democracy, press freedom, and the right to express dissent. We strongly condemn this incident and also demand a proper investigation and that those responsible be identified and brought to justice,” Prothom Alo said.
Trapped on roof
In an article titled “A Dark day for independent journalism”, The Daily Star, which too could not be printed on Friday, said: “Our colleagues, trapped on the roof, feared for their lives as a mob vandalised one floor after another and set fire to the lower floors. Although at one point it became difficult for them to breathe because of the smoke, no one has been hurt and everyone has returned home safe thanks to the efforts of the fire service, police and army.”
At least 28 journalists and office staff had taken shelter on the rooftop as the fire spread. They were rescued nearly four hours later by the army and the fire service.
The newspaper reported, quoting witnesses, that the protesters had blocked a fire services vehicle when it tried to reach the office, forcing it to retreat and delaying the rescue.
The protesters, whose number the newspaper put at 100 to 200, arrived around midnight and left around 4.30am. They broke through the main gate to enter the ground floor.
The mob vandalised furniture, galleries and glass doors before moving to the upper floors, where they damaged equipment and computers. Furniture and stacks of newspapers on the ground floor were set on fire, with the blaze spreading up to the third floor. Some of the furniture was taken out onto the road and smashed.
The Daily Star said the mob also destroyed furniture and computers on the sixth floor and took away electronic equipment, including desktops. Food from the office canteen was also taken away. An employee of the newspaper said his camera, electronic devices and hard drives were looted.
‘I can’t breathe’
As the fire spread and engulfed the floors in thick black smoke, breathless employees rushed to the roof.
“I can’t breathe any more. There’s too much smoke. I’m inside. You are killing me,” Zyma Islam, an investigative journalist at The Daily Star, posted on Facebook around 1am.
‘Delhi’s lapdog’
The protesters accused the two newspapers of setting the stage for Hadi’s killing and abused them as “Delhi’s lapdog” and “Sheikh Hasina’s enabler”. The Daily Star “vehemently” denied the claim.
“We also note with concern that a better coordinated response would have meant less trauma for our trapped colleagues who spent several hours in grave uncertainty in mortal fear,” it said.
It added that the protesters did not listen to the police or the army.
The editors of the two newspapers are known to be closely connected with Yunus, the country’s interim leader and a Nobel Peace laureate. Protests had been organised in recent months outside the two dailies’ offices by Islamists who accused them of links with India.
The editor of another newspaper, The New Age, was also harassed and verbally abused.
Man lynched
In Mymensingh city, a man identified as Dipu Chandra Das, 25, was lynched and his body set on fire over alleged blasphemy.
In a statement, the interim government on Friday condemned the lynching, saying there was no space for such violence in “the new Bangladesh”.
“The perpetrators of this heinous crime will not be spared,” it added.
Das was first beaten up by a mob outside a factory on Thursday night and then hanged from a tree, thepolice said.
“After the incident, the angry crowd left the body of the deceased beside the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and set it on fire. This stopped traffic on both sides of the highway,” inspector (investigation) of the Bhaluka model police station, Abdul Malek, was quoted as saying by the Bangla Tribune news portal.
The police sent the body to the Mymensingh Medical College morgue for an autopsy.
Videos of the barbarity went viral on social media.
“We strongly and unequivocally condemn all acts of violence, intimidation, arson and destruction of properties,” the interim government inDhaka said.
“At this critical hour, we call upon every citizen to honour Hadi by rejecting and resisting violence, incitement and hatred.”
The statement urged citizens to resist all forms of mob violence, committed by “a few fringe elements”.
The Hindu population in Bangladesh has faced a series of attacks since Hasina’s ouster.
Mujib house
Mujib’s home was vandalised with hammers. An office of Hasina’s disbanded Awami League party too was demolished in Rajshahi city.
Regarded as the nerve centre of Bangladesh’s pre-independence struggle for autonomy for decades, most of 32 Dhanmandi had been demolished with excavators on February 5 this year. It had been set on fire soon after the August 5, 2024, fall of the then Awami League government.
The police responded with tear gas and batons, dispersing the crowd and detaining 12 protesters. A few injuries were reported.
On Thursday night, the National Citizen Party (NCP), a large offshoot of the Students Against Discrimination that led last year’sviolent protests — dubbed the July Uprising — joined a procession on the Dhaka University campus to mournHadi’s death.
“Until India returns the assassins of Hadi Bhai, the Indian high commission to Bangladesh will remain closed. Now or never. We are in a war!” said Sarjis Alm, a key NCP leader.
In Dhaka, protesters attacked the office of a leading cultural group, Chhayanaut, brought out the furniture and set it on fire.
Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party condemned the vandalism and said the Yunus-led interim government would have to shoulder responsibility.