While the country is reeling from the Milestone School tragedy that claimed the innocent lives of dozens of children on July 21, the Gopalganj massacre, where the Bangladesh Army has unleashed brutality against the Awami League since July 16, and the interim governmentโs disregard for public demand for elections, Muhammad Yunus convened a meeting to show his strength to cling to power.
He was cheerful to have the top leaders of four political allies, including some from his own party, the National Citizen Party (NCP), and they reportedly spoke against โAwami fascismโ.
No words for the Milestone victims. No compassion for the innocent lives lost in Gopalganj.
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His NCP leadersโbetter known as mob commandersโare also heartless. They continued to threaten the Awami League and tagged the Milestone students as โcollaborators of the previous fascist regimeโ to justify the crackdown by the army and the police at the Secretariat and on the Uttara campus.
A day after, according to the daily Prothom Alo, the now-defunct Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ADSM) occupied the abandoned 10-storey central office of the Awami League at 23 Bangabandhu Avenue.
On May 15, a banner was hung at the building under the name of the Head Office of the July Joddha. The initiators also distributed sweets among the locals.
On Wednesday, the work of cleaning the office began by hanging two banners with the name โInternational Fascism and Genocide Research Instituteโ and some thugs sitting outside the building to claim possession.
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None of the people staying there agreed to reveal their names and identities. Those people also did not agree to say anything about who built the research institute, who is associated with it, and how it got its name.
They told journalists that once completed, the building will be handed over to the ADSM to accommodate the offices of those injured in the July-August riots last year and the families of martyrs.
As there is no rule of law, the mobs win. The vernacular daily has reported the matter without quotes from the authorities, the NCP or any politician from the Awami League.
The occupiers said the students and the public will decide what will happen on which floor of the entire building.
The Awami League central office was last moved to Gulistan in 1981. Construction of a 10-storey expanded building on 8 kathas of land began in September 2016. The magnificent building was inaugurated by the party president and five-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on June 23, 2018. It was built for Tk10 crore.
Since its establishment, the Awami League has shifted its office at least eight times. The party was launched at the Rose Garden in KM Das Lane, Old Dhaka on June 23, 1949. Initially, the party’s policies and programs were adopted at the homes of top leaders, and there was no office.
In 1953, a temporary office was used at Cancun Bari Lane. In 1956, the Awami League office moved to 56, Simson Road, Old Dhaka.
On January 25, 1964, the then General Secretary of the Awami League, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, took over the party office at 91, Nawabpur Road. A few days later, the Awami League leaders temporarily started sitting in the alley of Rupmahal Cinema Hall in Sadarghat. Later, the party had offices at two places in Purana Paltan for a long time.
After the Awami League government fell on August 5, the student-public mobs looted the building before setting it on fire.
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