Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 8, 2025

Letter to the Readers

In a very shocking development on February 5, 2025 a large mob of protestors demolished the Dhaka house of ‘’Bangabandhu’ —Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the key leader of Bangladesh’s independence movement and also set fire to properties of other leaders of the country’s former ruling party the Awami league at multiple locations. It is a tragedy that the interim administration in Bangladesh has failed to prevent this violence attacking symbols of the past. The statement [1] from the Nobel winner Prof Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor to current Bangladesh Govt blames a provocative speech by Sheikh Hasina the former prime minister of Bangladesh currently in exile in New Delhi as the cause of violence, and calls on citizens to refrain from violence and respect law and order. There is no denying that there is huge popular anger towards the Awami League for its very authoritarian rule, but six months after the overthrow of the Sheikh Hasina regime it is astonishing that the army and police ceded ground to a mob in full public view ripped apart a site of national heritage using heavy equipment such as bulldozers and an excavator. Revenge violence by the public in the name of outrage should cease and a process of justice —to book security officials for misconduct during the past years. We hope that Prof Yunus will get serious about not letting public violence take over under any circumstances.

February 8, 2025 —HK