According to police, Sheikh Hasina, the ousted leader, encouraged her supporters to demonstrate on Sunday by holding placards with Trump’s picture and American flags as “shields” in an audio clip.
Police say supporters of Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, were arrested for allegedly attempting to sour relations with Washington after they obeyed her orders to demonstrate while holding signs of Donald Trump.
On Saturday, police detained ten demonstrators they labeled “conspirators” and charged them with trying to undermine the nation of around 170 million people in South Asia.
Muhammad Talebur Rahman, a spokesman for the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, stated on Sunday, “We are evaluating their offenses in order to bring charges.”
Following weeks of deadly student-led protests that ended her mandate, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, 77, escaped to India by helicopter on August 5.
Since then, holding elections and enacting democratic changes have been the responsibilities of a caretaker administration headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
The little demonstration preceded a rally that Hasina’s Awami League had planned, but the interim administration, which labels the group “fascist,” forbade the event.
On Sunday, there were only a few pro-Hasina protestors on the streets, and there were a few minor altercations with student counter-protesters.
After Hasina’s rule fell, dozens of her supporters were taken into custody on suspicion of being involved in a police crackdown that murdered over 700 people during the upheaval that overthrew her, while other party members fled into hiding.
‘Conspiracy planning’
According to police, Hasina’s followers were exhorted to demonstrate on Sunday and to bring signs with Trump’s picture and American flags in an audio clip that was making the rounds on social media.
“She asked them to use the placards as shields and to take photos and video footage if there were any attacks,” police stated in a statement.
“They had been plotting a conspiracy to undermine Bangladesh’s friendly relationship with the United States.”
The White House referred to the accusations made by Hasina’s party that the US President Joe Biden’s administration was inciting the protest against her strict rule as “simply false” without providing any supporting evidence.
Events that prevented the opposition from exercising their democratic rights plagued her 15-year rule.
Following Trump’s election victory, Yunus, an 84-year-old microfinance pioneer who succeeded Hasina, expressed his excitement about “working together.”
Yunus’s press secretary claimed Hasina’s party was not permitted to march, but police claimed the Awami League had not applied for permission to hold a protest.
Shafiqul Alam declared in a statement, “The Awami League, in its current form, is a fascist party.”
“Anyone who attempts to hold rallies, gatherings, or processions under orders from the mass murderer and dictator Sheikh Hasina will face the full force of the law enforcement agencies.”
