Attackers set fire to headquarters of Bangladesh party that backed ousted leader Sheikh Hasina

Unidentified assailants vandalize an office of Jatiya Party that supported the country’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on October 31, 2024
| Photo Credit: AP

Attackers set fire to the headquarters of a Bangladesh party that supported the country’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina on Thursday (October 31, 2024) night, media reports said. There was no information if anyone was injured.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the Jatiya Party offices in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. TV stations and other media said the attackers stormed the party headquarters in Dhaka’s Bijoy Nagar area, clashing with party members who were there and eventually setting the premises on fire.

ALSO READ: Can Sheikh Hasina be extradited from India to Bangladesh to stand trial

The extend of the damage was not immediately known. Firefighters rushed to the scene, according to Rashed bin Khaled, an official of the Fire Service and Civil Defense. Bin Khaled, who spoke to The Associated Press by phone, had no other details.

The party is Bangladesh’s third largest and was founded by former military dictator H.M. Ershad in the 1980s.

As the attack was underway, a prominent leader of a student protest movement that led to Ms. Hasina’s ouster in August said the Jatiya Party should be “destroyed” for its support of her government.

Hasnat Abdullah, the student leader, claimed in a Facebook post that the Jatiya party was “a national betrayer.”

Mr. Abdullah is from the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, which spearheaded the July protests. He also urged students to gather at the Dhaka University and march toward the Jatiya Party headquarters.

Mujibul Haque Chunnu, the party’s secretary general, blamed the students for the attack. “People are watching what they are doing with us,” he said. “It is live in social media … they are doing it publicly, openly.”

Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party ruled the country for 15 years, since 2009. Her critics said the Jatiya Party had acted to give Hasina’s rule a veneer or democracy as other major political parties did not take part in the elections.