Media offices torched, journalist assaulted in Bangladesh

An uneasy calm prevails in Dhaka and several other cities of Bangladesh after they witnessed intense unrest late Thursday night following the death of the leader of Inqilab Moncho, one of the organisations, which led the movement to oust previous government of the country in August 2024, local and international media reported.

The mob attacked media houses, political offices, cultural institutions and private residences, triggering widespread vandalism, arson and road blockades after the death of Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, who came under gun attack in Dhaka on December 12 and succumbed to his injuries in Singapore on Thursday.

One of the most serious incidents occurred at Karwan Bazar, where the offices of the leading English-language daily The Daily Star and Bangla daily Prothom Alo where the unruly people conducted massive vandalism and arson.

They also assaulted noted journalist Nurul Kabir, Editor of the New Age, a leading English language newspaper published from Dhaka when Kabir, also President of the Editors Council of Bangladesh went to visit the spot in presence of the members of the law enforcing agencies.

Following the attacks, both the newspapers announced that they would not publish Friday editions, reported ANI, quoting BBC, adding that online operations at both outlets were also nearly paralysed.

Meanwhile, unrest spread beyond Karwan Bazar. In Dhanmondi, the cultural institution Chhayanaut was attacked Protesters broke in through a rear entrance, carried out extensive vandalism and looting, and later set fire to the building's frontage. Police and military personnel later brought the situation under control.

In Rajshahi, they demolished an office Awami League, the party headed by ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Earlier in May 2025, the interim government in Bangladesh led by Muhammad Yunus banned all activities of the Awami League.

In Chattogram, protesters torched the residence of former city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.

The protestors vented their ire at the partially demolished home of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding President of the country and father of the nation.

Earlier, On February 5, the protesters under the banner of anti-discrimination student movement, demolished the residence of Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, housing the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhaka.

In another incident, zealots lynched a man of Hindu religion in the Mymensingh district in Bangladesh on Thursday night over allegation of hurting religious sentiments, reported New Age.

The incident took place around 9:00pm on Thursday at the Pioneer Knit Composite factory in the Dubaliapara area. After the incident, a group of people took the body to the highway and set it on fire.

According to local residents and eyewitnesses, the deceased named Dipu Chandra Das, a worker of Pioneer Knit Composite factory was killed for allegation of making offensive comments about the Prophet of Islam religion.

Earlier on December 14, police arrested a journalist named Anis Alamgir following his remarks in social media and television programmes, which was protested by different journalists bodies and human rights organisations in home and abroad.

The interim government lodged hundreds of murder cases against the Awami League leaders and activists, leaders of pro-liberation organisations, cultural activists and journalists indiscriminately.

The government also took various anti-liberation moves and indulged the activities and vandalisms by the July-August protesters, Islamists and religious fundamentalists all over the country.

US based newspaper The New York Times in a report entitled “As Bangladesh Reinvents Itself, Islamist Hard-Liners See an Opening” focused the rise of Islamists during the regime of Muhammad Yunus led government.

In February this year, a group of religious extremists stormed into a stall at a book fair in Bangladesh protesting against selling of a book written by exiled feminist writer Taslima Nasrin and forced the publisher to close the stall.

Read more: Bangladesh at risk as interim regime targets secular forces, favours extremists.