Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Few are taking the interim government in Bangladesh seriously, as, even after its leader Nobel Peace Laureate Mohammad Yunus’s appeal for peace, the Islamists led by the pro-Pakistani outfit Jamaat-e-Islami may be pushing the troubled South Asian nation down the road to perdition.
Dissatisfied with erasing the memorials of the country’s history and destroying the statues of the Father of the Nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman—some videos showed the perpetrators even urinating on the Bangbandhu’s falling icons—the Islamists also defaced the sculptures of the Pakistani Army’s surrender to India in 1971, the media reported on Monday.
These acts of vandalism came with the ongoing violence across the fast-turning Islamist country, where more than 500 people, including celebrities and Hindus, have been killed in the ongoing unrest since mid-July which resulted in the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina government last week.
The iconic statues in Bangladesh commemorating the 1971 surrender of the Pakistan Army, which symbolized the liberation of the country, have been destroyed by vandals, images surfaced on social media over the weekend showed.
The statues were erected at the 1971 Shaheed Memorial Complex, Mujibnagar, to commemorate the pivotal moment in the liberation war when the defeated Pakistan Army surrendered to the Allied forces. It led to the freedom of Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) from Pakistan’s rule. These iconic sculptures attracted many tourists.
Mujibnagar was the place in Bangladesh where the first Mujib-led provisional government had taken the oath of office after the liberation.
The Liberation War Memorial Complex housed many such sculptures of historical significance, including the Bangabandhu’s historic March 7 speech.
Reacting to the horror, former diplomat and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor denounced the vandalism and attributed it to anti-India agitators.
“This (attack) follows disgraceful attacks on the Indian cultural center, temples, and Hindu homes in several places, even as reports came in of Muslim civilians protecting other minority homes and places of worship,” he said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.
He urged the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus to take urgent steps to restore law and order in the country and noted that India stands with Bangladesh at such a time. “…such anarchic excesses can never be condoned,” he said.
The Yunus government took charge of the country on Thursday last week, hoping to quell the anger of the demonstrators and restore order in the violence-torn region.
The anarchy in Bangladesh reached such a flash point that the police abandoned their posts, fled their homes, and refused to return to work. The protesting police officers are now reported to have ended their ‘strike’ after assurances from the new government, although the armed forces continued to protect police stations and students managed the traffic in some cities.