More than two months post the ouster of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from Bangladesh, the interim government led by Chief Advisor Mohammad Younus has said it is planning to turn her family residence, ‘Ganabhaban’ (People’s House) into a museum representing her “misrule”.
Accompanied by advisors from his cabinet, Younus visited Ganabhaban on Monday, and announced that turning the residence into a museum would serve as a memorial for the 15 years of the Awami-League and Sheikh Hasina’s “misrule” in the country.
The residential building was founded by her father and Bangladesh’s founder and first Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the country’s independence. It was subsequently used by the country’s two military leaders President Ziaur Rahman and Hussain Mohammed Ershad as a court martial office.
The structure has been used by Sheikh Hasina as her residence since the formation of her first government back in 1996 and was continued to be used by her until her sudden ouster on August 5, following the student-led mob protests.
Ganabhaban became the focus of global news following Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, when thousands of protesters swarmed into the premises. The protesters were seen reclining on her bed and sofas, walking away with ducks and fish from her kitchen-garden pond, and even displaying the ousted premier’s undergarments as they rifled through her cupboards.
Hasina, 77, fled to India at short notice as the mob advanced to her residence, and has been living in New Delhi under strict protection.
“The museum should have the memories of the misrule and the people’s anger that ousted Sheikh Hasina,” Younus said, adding that a dummy of ‘Ayna Ghor’ (Glass House), where the ex-PM’s alleged notorious security agencies secretly detained dissidents and opposition members, should also be built at the Ganabhaban museum, somoynews reported.
Signalling the interim government’s intent on transforming Ganabhabhan into a memorial for the July protests, Press Secretary to the Chief Advisor Abul Kalam Azad Majumdar addressing a press briefing said: “The chief advisor has instructed the advisor (Adilur Rahman Khan) to consult with experts and architects to expedite the process.”
He also said that the inclusion of the ‘Ayna Ghor’ replica was a symbolic representation of the detention centres which aim to educate visitors about the types of alleged “torture” endured by those detained there by the Awami League government.
He added that “Many people are implicated in this torture. The commission on enforced disappearances will investigate and identify who are explicitly involved,” though he did not single out any particular name.
While members of the interim government have been saying in public that India should extradite Sheikh Hasina to “face justice”, New Delhi has kept mum.
While Sheikh Hasina is a democratically elected prime minister of Bangladesh, the Interim government in contrast is backed by the army.
Affiliates of the Interim government are seen as Islamist leaning, and have been hounding former ministers and senior bureaucrats linked with Hasina’s government, with many of them “arrested”.
