Bangladesh launches ‘Operation Devil Hunt’ after ex-minister’s supporters resist ‘vandalism’ Today World News

Protesters and observers gather to see the demolished Dhanmondi-32 residence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the ousted PM Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh February 6, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Bangladesh’s interim government launched an operation Saturday after a student group gave a 24-hour ultimatum to track down “culprits” who assaulted their activists during a reported attack by protesters on an Awami League leader’s house on the outskirts of Dhaka.

The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement leaders claim their activists went to the ex-minister’s house to prevent looting but were attacked by miscreants.

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus’s government ordered “Operation Devil Hunt” calling out army troops as a protest by the student organisation was underway in Gazipur, where their activists were assaulted on Friday.

In a statement, the Home Ministry said the operation began across Gazipur and would extend nationwide to ensure public safety. It added that details about the coordinated security clampdown comprising army and law enforcement agencies would be announced on Sunday.

According to media reports and witnesses, people in the neighbourhood and Awami League workers assaulted the activists during the attack at the Gazipur home of ex-liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque, injuring several of them.

The students’ platform leaders, however, claim their activists went to Haque’s house to stop lootings after receiving information that it was being plundered. They alleged that police did not respond to their call when the miscreants attacked them.

However, Gazipur police said security personnel rushed to the scene after receiving information and rescued the students, of which 15 were admitted to a local hospital. Later, some of them were shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with critical wounds. Home Affairs Adviser Lt Gen (Retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury visited the hospital and promised to track down each attacker and bring them to justice.

Officer-in-charge of Gazipur Sadar Police Station Arifur Rahman said a manhunt has also been launched for the culprits who attacked the students. He was later suspended on charges of negligence of duty, the Daily Star newspaper reported.

The incident was part of the widespread violence that erupted across the country on Wednesday night over a live online address by Sheikh Hasina.

Mobs targeted supporters of the deposed prime minister and vandalised their homes and businesses in Dhaka and other cities.

Some media tallied about 70 attacks in at least 35 districts across the country since Wednesday.

Protesters also set fire to the historic 32 Dhanmondi residence of Bangladesh’s founding leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was from this residence that Rahman proclaimed the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971. Media reports said police stood by while an army soldiers team came to the scene but left after being booed by the activists.

The residence was the ancestral home of Hasina and her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana. Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 last year, when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her Awami League’s 16-year regime.

The Student Movement, which led the protests leading to her ouster, along with the Jatiya Nagorik Committee simultaneously laid siege on a major road in Gazipur under their central leaders Hasnat Abdullah and Sarjis Alam.

The Jatiya Nagorik Committee is another platform of theirs that is believed to preparing to emerge as a political party.

The movement leaders demanded the cancellation of Awami League’s registration as a political party, the trial of Hasina and her associates and the confiscation of their property for their role in the brutal crackdown during the July-August uprising that eventually toppled the party’s regime.

They also demanded action against the “Awami League cohorts” lurking in Yunus’s advisory council and administration.

In a statement on Friday, Yunus called for “complete law and order” and an end to attacks on the properties of the deposed premier’s family and leaders of her “fascist” Awami League.

Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) urged the interim government to curb “mob culture” and restore law and order, warning that failure to do so could lead to the reemergence of “fascist” forces. According to the Prothom Alo newspaper, senior BNP leaders suspect the acts of vandalism and disorder could be part of a “broader conspiracy”—either to delay the next national election process or to influence its political outcome.

Unrest has gripped Bangladesh again, six months after the student-led uprising ousted the Awami League, which had been in power for nearly 16 years.