Dhaka, Aug 13 (UNI) Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been staying in India since she resigned and left the country on Aug 5 amid a student-led mass uprising, has started communicating with her Awami League party leaders over the phone and asked them to take the necessary initiatives to observe national mourning day on August 15.
The former prime minister made phone calls to her party leaders from India on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, which several AL leaders confirmed to New Age daily.
They said that Hasina asked them to pay tribute to her father and the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, at Dhanmondi-32.
They said that Hasina informed them that party leaders and activists in Gopalganj would observe the day in the district, paying rich tribute at the grave of Sheikh Mujib located in Tungipara of the district.
Bangladesh observes National Mourning Day on August 15 every year to mark the brutal assassination of its founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known as Bangabandhu, and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.
“My leader [Hasina] told me that she would come home soon. She asked us not to feel hapless,” a mid-level leader of the AL’s Dhaka north city unit told New Age, adding that Hasina asked them to file cases and general diaries with police about recent attacks once the police stations were reopened.
Several AL leaders said that they suspect that Saturday’s attack on a patrol team of the army in Gopalganj was caused by some angry leaders and activists.
They said that after the AL supporters of Gopalgnaj, the birthplace of Sheikh Hasina, got a message that she would come back home soon, they became emotional and attacked army personnel.
On Sunday night, at least 10 people, including five army personnel and journalists, were injured as AL leaders and activists attacked army personnel and other people from a demonstration they organised protesting at Sheikh Hasina’s “forced resignation”.
A large group of AL leaders, including ministers and lawmakers, have either fled the country or kept their phones switched off since the resignation of Hasina.
The Hasina government had had strained relations with the US for many years. Ahead of January’s elections this year, she said “a white man” had offered her smooth return to power in exchange for an airbase.
In her latest statement, Hasina, the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladesh’s history, warned the new interim government not be “used” by such foreign powers.
UNI RN