Ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina shares emotional message after mob vandalizes her father’s house in Dhaka

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in an emotional address to her supporters, responded to the vandalization of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s house in Dhaka, saying ‘her opponents can destroy a structure but can’t erase history’.

“Why do they fear a house? We live for those memories of Dhanmondi... Last time they set this house on fire, now they are destroying it. Have I not done anything for this country? Then why such disrespect,” said a teary-eyed Hasina, who has been living in India since her ouster in August last year.

“The only memory that I and my sister have clung to is being wiped out... I want to ask my people who is behind this. I want justice... A structure can be erased, but history cannot be wiped out,” she said in a virtual audio address posted on her party Awami League’s Facebook account.

Further in her message, she warned her opponents saying they must remember that history takes its revenge.

On Feb 5, a large group of protesters vandalized and set on fire to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's residence in Dhaka during Hasina’s live online address organized by her party’s now-disbanded student wing Chhatra League.

As per witness accounts, thousands of people rallied in front of the house in the capital's Dhanmondi area following a social media call for a "Bulldozer Procession" meant to oppose Hasina’s address at 9 pm (BST).

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s house was considered an iconic symbol in Bangladesh's history as he largely led the pre-independence autonomy movement for decades from the residence.

Affectionately known as "Bangabandhu" or "Friend of Bengal,” Sheikh Mujib since the late 1960s, earned the title during his movement for autonomy from Pakistan, which led to a mass uprising in 1969.

Hasina in her address stated that she and her only surviving sibling had donated their ancestral home to a trust, transforming it into the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.

She also called upon the countrymen to organize a resistance against the current regime led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.

"They are yet to have the strength to destroy the national flag, the constitution and the independence that we earned at the cost of the lives of millions of martyrs with a bulldozer," Hasina said in a veiled reference to Yunus's incumbent regime, installed by the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement.

She further accused the Muhammad Yunus-led regime of orchestrating a plot to eliminate her and her family.

"The meticulous plan by Muhammad Yunus this time was to kill me and my sister," she said.

Hasina also mentioned past assassination attempts on her life and said, “If Allah has kept me alive through all this, there must be some work left for me. Otherwise, how could I have escaped death so many times?”

She also accused Yunus of using ordinary students and planning a movement to grab the state's power.

Urging the students to go back to their studies to build their future to serve the country, Hasina said, "At this age, it is easy to be manipulated.”