Awami League slams attacks on media offices, flags growing crisis in Bangladesh

Dhaka, Dec 20: Bangladesh’s Awami League party strongly condemned a series of nationwide attacks targeting media offices, cultural institutions, and diplomatic missions, describing them as a “planned terrorist attack.”

The party asserted that such incidents show that the minimum characteristics of a modern, civilised state have ceased to exist in the country.

These attacks targeted the offices of the country’s leading newspapers, Prothom Alo and The Daily Star; the national cultural institution Chhayanaut; the Indian Assistant High Commission offices in Chattogram and Khulna; the Indian Cultural Centre; the remaining structures of the Bangabandhu memorial museum—an important symbol of the nation’s history; various other media offices, cultural institutions, and diplomatic establishments across the country.

Additionally, another Hindu youth in the country was mercilessly beaten and burned to death in an “act of communal hatred”.

The unrest broke out across the country following the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, spokesperson of the radical group Inqilab Mancha.

“These barbaric attacks and killings constitute a direct and extreme assault on Bangladesh’s secular ethos, the ideals of the Liberation War, pluralism, cultural heritage, and media freedom. As an independent, sovereign, and pluralistic state, Bangladesh has been turned into a safe haven for terrorists. Targeting cultural institutions and diplomatic missions of another country is a gross violation of decency and state security, and above all, a blatant breach of diplomatic norms and international law,” read a statement issued by the Awami League.

Slamming the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, the party said, “The entire state machinery has sunk into the filth of extremist communal frenzy, with the committee calling itself a government acting as an active patron.”

According to the Awami League, these “hostile forces, extremist communal and militant groups”, are engaged in a well-planned conspiracy to destroy peaceful coexistence, create religious divisions, and embarrass Bangladesh internationally.

“The killing of a minority Hindu youth by beating and burning proves that these forces are enemies of humanity, religious values, and the rule of law,” the party stated.

Condemning the repeated attacks and acts of vandalism at the historic Dhanmondi 32, a site in the memory of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Awami League called it the "ultimate expression of the arrogance of anti–Liberation War and anti-people forces”.

“The Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at 32 was burned, bulldozers were brought in to demolish it, and even upon those ruins, attacks have been carried out again. Such a perverse mentality belongs to the killer-fascist Yunus and his militant forces. We denounce this hateful mindset. The future will never tolerate such reckless displays by the ignorant,” the party stated.

The Awami League stressed that bringing all terrorists, instigators, and patrons involved in these attacks and killings to justice and ensuring exemplary punishment is an urgent necessity.

“However, the indifference and inaction of the current occupying government toward these groups are clearly evident. Therefore, public awareness must be built at every level of society against these extremist communal forces and militant terrorists,” it emphasised.

--IANS