The Awami League did not hold any open programmes in the capital, including in the Bangabandhu Museum at Dhanmondi 32, on Thursday, marking the country鈥檚 founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's 49th death anniversary.
Hundreds of people, including students and Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists, took positions in the adjacent areas of Bangabandhu Bhaban, the residence of Sheikh Mujib, past midnight on Wednesday to prevent Awami League supporters from holding any programme near the place.
Students and BNP activists beat anyone they found wearing black punjabis, shirts, and T-shirts with sticks near Dhanmondi-32 and its adjacent areas, assuming they were Awami League supporters.
Some students also allegedly checked the mobile phones of the public and journalists and kept dozens of people detained.
Several journalists alleged that they were prevented from performing their duties and created obstacles for them to take photos and videos.
Tahmid Hasan Nihad, a student at Southeast University, said that they took positions in the area to prevent AL's 鈥榗ounter-revolution鈥� during the day and to safeguard their 'second independence.鈥�
鈥榃e urge the AL men not to come here. We are ready to resist them under the banner of Student Movement Against Discrimination, and general people have also joined us,鈥� he said, admitting that some AL men were also beaten and detained as they attempted to move to the Mujib Museum.
鈥楾he fascist Hasina government killed many of my brothers and sisters during the student protests,鈥� he said.
He added that the country gained 鈥榠ndependence鈥� for the second time and did not want the recurrence of any authoritarian rule.聽
Student Movement Against Discrimination coordinator Rifat Rashid said in a statement that they did not support anything that hampers people鈥檚 privacy, referring to the allegations of students checking people鈥檚 mobile phones.
鈥楽uch activities will bring back the previous discrimination in a new way. I urge all not to do activities that hamper people鈥檚 privacy, including checking mobile phones,鈥� he added.
The angry mob also beat some people who were trying to capture photos or videos from inside buses, as the areas were under protesters' control.
Dhanmondi police station officer-in-charge Md Emranul Islam said that students detained some people and brought them to the police station.
A deputy additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said that protesters had taken at least 10 people to the police station after detaining them.
Krishak Sramik Janata League president Abdul Kader Siddique went to pay tribute to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at about 7:30am but he was not allowed and alleged that his car was also vandalised.聽
鈥業 went there to pay tribute and saw some agitated students and people. Some students greeted me and asked me to leave the place. My vehicle was vandalised,鈥� said Kader while talking to reporters at Dhanmondi-32 after the incident.聽
He alleged that the Awami League could not make 鈥楤angabandhu鈥� a people鈥檚 man in the past years and rather made him an Awami League鈥檚 man.
Students were seen checking people coming towards the Bangabandhu Museum, and some AL men were also confined at New Model Degree College premises.
They used loudspeakers to ask AL 鈥榤iscreants鈥� not to come close to the area as they had taken control of it.聽
During the 15-year rule of the Awami League government, the day was observed on a large scale across the country, especially in Dhanmondi-32.
Most of the Awami League leaders and activists went into hiding after a mass uprising led by students toppled the party from the government, with its chief Sheikh Hasina resigning as prime minister and fleeing the country on August 5.
The student protests and subsequent violence left over 500 people killed in July and August.
