Sheikh Hasina urges supporters to make public show of strength

Ousted Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday asked supporters to make a public show of strength later this week, hours after a court ruled that a murder probe against her linked to last month’s unrest could proceed.

Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter last week to neighbouring India, where she remains, as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted 15-year rule.

More than 450 people were killed during the weeks of unrest leading up to her toppling, and members of her Awami League party have since gone to ground.

Thursday marks the anniversary of the 1975 assassination of her father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during a military coup – a date her government had declared a national holiday.

“I appeal to you to observe the National Day of Mourning on August 15 with due respect and solemnity,” she said in a written statement given to journalists through her US-based son.

She asked supporters to “pray for the salvation of all souls by offering floral garlands and praying” at her childhood home in the capital Dhaka.

The landmark was until recently a museum to her father, but it was torched and vandalised by a mob hours after her fall.

The caretaker administration now running Bangladesh had said earlier in the evening that it had cancelled observance of the politically charged holiday. Tuesday’s statement was Hasina’s first public comment since her resignation.

She also demanded an investigation into killings and other criminal acts during the unrest that forced her out of office, with the culprits to be “identified and punished”.

Police weaponry was the cause of most deaths during the protests, according to police and hospital figures previously gathered by Agence France-Presse.

Hasina’s call came hours after a court in Dhaka opened a murder investigation into her, two top Awami League figures and four senior police officers.

The case accuses the seven of responsibility for the death of a grocery store owner who was shot dead on July 19 as police violently suppressed protests.

Hasina’s government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus returned from Europe three days after Hasina’s ouster to head a temporary administration facing the monumental challenge of steering democratic reforms.

The 84-year-old won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microfinance, and is credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis out of grinding poverty.

He took office as “chief adviser” to a caretaker administration – all fellow civilians bar home minister Sakhawat Hossain, a retired brigadier general – and has said he wants to hold elections “within a few months”.

Sakhawat said Monday that the government had no intention of banning Hasina’s Awami League, which played a pivotal role in the country’s independence movement.

“The party has made many contributions to Bangladesh – we don’t deny this,” he told reporters. “When the election comes, [they should] contest the elections.”

The new administration has stressed it wants to put Bangladesh on a different path.

Its foreign minister Touhid Hossain told a briefing of more than 60 foreign diplomats late Monday it was “very serious about human rights”, and vowed not to “allow any violence or damages to occur”. “All those committing such crimes will be investigated,” he said.

The unrest and political change have also shaken Bangladesh’s critical garment industry, but he assured diplomats that foreign investments would be protected.

Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 per cent of its US$55 billion in annual exports, supplying many of the world’s top brands as the world’s second biggest exporter of clothing by value after China.

“This is a temporary crisis,” Touhid added. “Everything will come back in the right way, as competent people are in charge.”