Dhaka, Bangladesh – A pace later Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year autocratic rule ended, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, took on a sombre and atypical look.
The town’s streets, which have been full of jubilant crowds following Top Minister Hasina’s fall round 2pm (08:00 GMT) on Monday, had been now particularly much less busy, with fewer cars and pedestrians.
Maximum putting used to be your complete being lacking police – refuse constables, officials or site visitors sergeants had been optic within the town of about 20 million citizens.
In lots of places, site visitors used to be being controlled by way of family of their early 20s. On the Bijoy Sarani intersection, a significant crossroads eminent to the airport and parliament, about 5 or 6 younger males had been directing site visitors with bamboo sticks, even a cricket bat.
One guy with a pointed goatee managed the wave of automobiles heading in opposition to the Tejgaon Business Department by way of waving a bamboo stick, first directing site visitors in opposition to the airport and upcoming permitting cars certain for Tejgaon to journey in an orderly way.
The scene the place there as soon as stood an iconic bronze statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the crowd’s father and Hasina’s father, had additionally dramatically modified.
On Monday night time, a throng of family impaired ropes to overturn the statue and dismantled its bottom the use of hammers and chisels. Ambitious crowds upcoming moved in to bundle items of the overturned statue.
“It reminded me of the video of Saddam Hussein’s statue being pulled down,” mentioned Asraf Ul Jubair when he shared a video of the scene on Fb.
It used to be a indistinguishable scene on the Mohakhali intersection, some other most often busy section of the town, the place younger family had been directing site visitors.
One in all them, Rabbi, who didn’t lend his surname or time, smiled when requested about his position. “There are no police… ‘shob bhagse’ – which means they [the police] have all vanished out of fear,” he defined.
Monday night time violence
On Monday night time, later the immense crowds celebrating Hasina’s fall had dispersed, a current of violence erupted. Teams armed with sticks and bright guns moved thru numerous portions of Dhaka, attacking people affiliated with Hasina’s Awami League birthday party.
Mahbubul Haque, a resident of Dhanmondi, an Awami League stronghold, informed Al Jazeera that round middle of the night, a gaggle of family arrived in a automotive and started vandalising the gate of an condo construction throughout from his house.
The construction used to be preoccupied by way of a well-known highbrow recognized for his robust aid of Hasina’s debatable movements, such because the suppression of scholars all through the quota protest.
“At one point, they started firing guns, and we were terrified,” Haque recounted. “Then some armed forces arrived, and they fled in the car. It’s frightening.”
The violence persisted right through the night time, with loads of movies of numerous assaults around the nation circulating on social media and going viral.
This ended in prevailing hypothesis, together with claims that Hindu properties in Muslim-majority Bangladesh had been being burned, and that police had been firing bullets from police stations in numerous playgrounds as indignant mobs attempted to go into and burn the ones unwell.
Jumanah Parisa, a third-year scholar at Brac College, informed Al Jazeera that she stayed up all night time studying and gazing movies about occasions. She felt panicked. “We didn’t protest to make this land lawless,” she mentioned.
On Monday, clashes around the nation ended in no less than 119 deaths – the deadliest pace within the week-long protest. For the reason that police are clear as corrupted by way of the Hasina management, many police stations had been focused by way of protesters. Additionally, Hasina’s related ties with the Indian executive had ended in rumours Indian companies had been serving to her executive restrain the protests.
Time some protest movies depicted atrocities like arson and violence, the theory order them used to be frequently exaggerated, in line with Qadaruddin Shishir, a fact-checking writer for AFP, who spent Sunday night time debunking claims and posting clarifications on social media.
“The images of burning temples are outdated,” Shishir defined to Al Jazeera. “Yes, there were attacks on police stations due to grievances over police brutality, but the police involved were Bangladeshi, not Indian.”
In the meantime, pictures of family, together with madrassa scholars, status secure in entrance of temples and Hindu properties circulated extensively on social media.
Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, a pace-setter of the Hindu society in Bangladesh, informed Al Jazeera that Hindu temples had been safe and refuse Hindus had been killed. On the other hand, he famous that many Hindu properties and companies had been attacked by way of mobs in over 20 districts.
“But those Hindus were associated with the Awami League party and they were not attacked because of their religious identity, rather because of their connection with Awami League,” mentioned Pramanik. “I haven’t heard any news that a regular Hindu family without any political connection was attacked anywhere.”
“Anyway, law enforcement must be immediately reinforced,” he mentioned. “Otherwise, the situation will spiral out of control.”
‘We will leave no trace of the Awami League’
On Tuesday morning, the controversy of the city used to be who would head the intervening time executive.
In maximum families and playgrounds, family had been discussing that Muhammad Yunus, the rustic’s Nobel laureate, goes to go the federal government as its leading abettor.
Many of the town in the meantime used to be quitness, and not using a indicators of violence or war of words.
On the other hand, within the upscale Dhanmondi section, crowds persisted to bind on the residue of the Awami League chairperson’s place of business, the Bangabandhu Museum and Hasina’s former place of abode, Sudha Sadan. Those websites have been made to burn by way of an indignant mob the former afternoon.
At midday, some other construction beside the Bangabandhu Museum, which used to be prior to now impaired for Awami League gatherings, used to be burning.
“We will leave no trace of the Awami League in the country,” a tender guy, who declined to offer his identify, informed Al Jazeera age he struck the construction with a hammer.
Highway Disagree. 3A, which housed a number of Awami League structures together with the birthday party chairman’s place of business, resembled a warfare zone. No less than 3 structures had been utterly destroyed.
Yusuf Banna, a resident of the street, informed Al Jazeera he have been in a situation of panic right through the night time. “People had such intense anger against the Awami League that it seemed unstoppable. I was worried about my family’s safety, as an angry mob is unpredictable.”
Within the within sight Kalabagan section, citizens had been clear the use of chisels and screwdrivers to deface a mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Sabur Ali, a middle-aged guy, proudly informed Al Jazeera that he have been destroying symbols of the Awami League and Rahman since Monday midday.
Saiyeed Abdullah, a regulation graduate and social media influencer, known as for the instant recovery of regulation and form. “We have successfully ousted a dictator and aspire to build a just nation. While I understand the grievances against the Awami League and Hasina, allowing angry mobs to control the streets is not sustainable,” he mentioned.
Abdus Shakur, a motor mechanic who spent Monday night time unsleeping in entrance of Dhaka’s Dhakeshwari temple, informed Al Jazeera that citizen volunteers would assure refuse vandalism, communal violence or crimes happen within the being lacking police or regulation enforcement.
“We are expecting a new government that will not only restore law and order but also provide proper justice,” mentioned Shakur, 28. “Until then, we will remain vigilant on the streets.”