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The vandalism of and arson attacks on the Awami League leaders’ homes and party offices by agitating students and people continued for the third consecutive day on Friday.

They also continued to vandalise murals and portraits of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the day.

Between Thursday evening and Friday evening, AL presidium member Sheikh Selim’s house was set on fire in the capital’s Banani at 1:30am on Friday, party presidium member and former Rajshahi city mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton’s front part of the house was demolished at about 11:00pm on Thursday, former minister SM Rezaul Karim’s house was set on fire in Pirojpur’s Nazirpur upazila at about 8:30pm on Thursday, former state minister for information and lawmaker for Jamalpur-4 constituency Murad Hasan’s house at Sorishabari upazila in Jamalpur was set on fire after vandalism on Thursday night, according to reports received from districts.  

On Thursday at about 10:30pm, protesters vandalised and looted a warehouse situated on the Hasina family’s ancestral seat in Dighalia upazila of Khulna.

The agitators vandalised murals and portraits of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his daughter now ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the president of the Awami League.

The fresh spate of such attacks began on Wednesday evening when agitators launched an attack on the Sheikh Mujib’s Dhanmondi Road 32 house, already broken in a violent attack on August 5, just after the fall of the Awami League regime amid a student-mass uprising leading to then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster and fleeing to India.

In the fresh attack, the agitators vandalised the remnants of the house, which was Bangabandhu Memorial Museum until the fall of the AL regime, set it on fire and bulldozed it, razing it to the ground. 

The members of law enforcement and security agencies were largely inactive when house’s demolition was going on as well as in other attacks launched on the homes of Awami League leaders in different parts of  the country, including Dhaka city.

The countrywide anarchy began with the ‘Bulldozer 32’ programme announced on social media by several quarters and top leadership of the Student Against Discrimination on Wednesday evening centring the ousted prime minister’s address to the student community at 9:00pm on the day. 

Chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Friday called for peace and order, saying that no further attacks on any citizens on any pretexts must not happen.

Yunus’s call came in a statement shared by the chief adviser’s press wing in the afternoon.

At Dhanmondi 32 on Friday afternoon, a large number of people thronged to watch the remnant of the demolished historic building on the weekend.

Many people were seen collecting building materials from the debris and also breaking the parts of the remaining structure of the house to take iron rods, wood etc. 

Mohamamd Taleb, a carpenter, living in the capital’s Asadgate area said that he came to see the demolished historic building.

‘Allah brought Sheikh Hasina down from power for her immense torture on people,’ Taleb said.

On Wednesday, over a thousand agitators stormed the museum premises at about 8:00pm after Student Against Discrimination convener Hasnat Abdullah announced on his verified Facebook page that Bangladesh would be freed of the bastions of fascism that night.

Awami League presidium member Sheikh Selim’s house in the capital’s Banani  was set on fire at about 1:30am on Friday with the Fire Service and Civil Defence duty officer claiming that they did not reach the spot over security concern stemming from the agitating people’s activities.

Local people later brought the fire under control, preventing it from spreading to other houses.

Sheikh Selim, also a former AL lawmaker for Gopalganj-2 constituency, is a first cousin of Sheikh Hasina.

An agitated mob set fire to the village home of former chief of army staff Moeen U Ahmed at about 9:00pm on Thursday at Alipur village of Chaumuhani municipality in Noakhali.

Also on Thursday evening, an angry mob set the house of former minister SM Rezaul Karim on fire in Pirojpur’s Nazirpur upazila, United News of Bangladesh reported.

Protesters demolished Bogura district unit offices of Awami League and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-Jasod after vandalism an arson attacks on them at about 8:00pm on Thursday, UNB reported quoting witnesses.