Bangladesh Has Become Pakistan Now, Awami League Worker Says After Fleeing To India

Supporters of Awami League and members of minority and ethnic communities are reportedly facing persecution in Bangladesh in the aftermath of fall of the Sheikh Hasina's government.

Bangladesh Crisis: Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh, Awami League supporters are reportedly facing severe persecution. Minorities and indigenous communities are also experiencing heightened levels of oppression, according to Mohammad Helaluddin, a self-proclaimed Awami League supporter who fled to India for refuge. Helaluddin claims that attacks on Awami League members have intensified since the Hasina administration's collapse.

"Even concrete houses are being set on fire with petrol. The atrocities against minorities and indigenous people are unimaginable unless witnessed firsthand," Helaluddin said while speaking to ABP Ananda. He also alleged that anyone identified as an Awami League supporter is being brutally attacked. "Bangladesh has turned into another Pakistan; it no longer exists as we knew it. They called it a student movement, but there was something else behind it," he added, accusing the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-Jamaat alliance of orchestrating the violence.

In the aftermath of the Hasina government's fall, Awami League supporters' homes have been vandalised, looted, and set ablaze, according to reports emerging from the neighbouring country. Many have fled to India to save their lives, including Sheikh Hasina herself. 

The military currently controls Bangladesh, with an interim government being formed under the leadership of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, even as Bangladesh remains engulfed in turmoil, with continuous incidents of severe violence and a rapidly rising death toll.

Violence And Unrest Continues In Bangladesh 

Even after the Hasina government's fall, Bangladesh remains a hotbed of violence. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which had been sidelined for years, is now becoming increasingly active amid the efforts to establish an interim government. 
BNP leader Khaleda Zia, released from jail shortly after Hasina's resignation, is reported to have expressed concern over the country's anarchic state. Her son, Tarique Rahman, is expected to return to Bangladesh from London soon. He joined a BNP rally Wednesday virtually.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami has reopened its central office in Dhaka after 13 years, amidst the interim government formation efforts. The office in Dhaka's Mogbazar had been closed for most of Hasina's 15-year tenure.