Awami League leaders killed and detained: Is this the end of Sheikh Hasina’s party?

On Monday (August 5), a seismic took place in Bangladesh when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina besieged by violent demonstrations resigned and fled to India. Hours after she exited the country in the most dramatic fashion and made her to way India — where she continues to remain — her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, confirmed that Hasina, age 77, is never coming back to politics.

In the aftermath of her exit, it seems that the Awami League — a party once spearheaded by Hasina’s late father and the nation’s founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, may face a prolonged period of political bankruptcy.

We take a look at why the party may struggle to recover and regain its former status.

Awami League leaders killed, offices ransacked

Since Sunday, Bangladesh has been gripped by violence and chaos. Agitators have been on a rampage, storming Hasina’s official residence — the Ganabhaban — and looting it. Even after Hasina’s departure, the agitators have been continuing their protests, ransacking buildings.

Amid this violence, reports have emerged that bodies of 29 leaders of the Awami League and their family members have been recovered from different parts of the country. At least 10 were killed in violence in Satkhira after Hasina’s resignation and departure on Monday. Houses and business establishments belonging to several Awami League leaders were vandalised and looted, The Dhaka Tribune reported.

In Cumilla, at least 11 people were killed in attacks by mobs. Six people died as a three-storey house of former councillor Mohammad Shah Alam was set on fire by miscreants. An angry mob also set ablaze the house of Shafiqul Islam Shimul, an MP of Bangladesh.

On Monday (August 5), rioters also torched a five-star hotel owned by Jashore district Awami League’s general secretary Shahin Chaklader in the Khulna division. This resulted in 24 people, mostly boarders, being burnt alive. “The bodies were lying on different floors,” said Mamun Mahmud, Deputy Director of Khulna Fire Service.

Protesters also didn’t spare the Awami League office in the capital. According to some reports, the demonstrators stole furniture, tiles, rods and even commodes from the office before setting it on fire. “It can be seen that the fire is burning on the second and third floor of the office. In such a situation, all the furniture inside the floors where the fire is extinguished is being taken away. Someone is coming out from inside the office with a rod, someone is opening the commode in the bathroom and coming out with it on their head. Someone is taking a chair; someone is taking a table. Someone is taking away the electronic,” reported Prothom Alo, a leading Bengali newspaper in Bangladesh.

The house of Asaduzzaman Khan, Bangladesh’s home minister under Hasina’s rule, was also ransacked.

Behind bars or fleeing the country

Apart from the vandalism of offices and properties belonging to those affiliated with the Awami League, the party leaders are also at the receiving end of legal consequences. On Tuesday, former Communications Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak was barred from boarding a plane at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and taken under custody in immigration.

Prothom Alo, citing sources said, that Palak was trying to leave for Nepal but was not allowed to leave. He has now been taken under custody and barred from leaving the country.

Similarly, former Bangladesh Foreign Minister and Awami League’s joint secretary Hasan Mahmud was detained at Dhaka Airport while he attempted to leave the country. He has now been handed over to the army.

While Mahmud and Palak were nabbed and detained, others have gone into hiding or have already fled the nation. For instance, the party’s second-in-command, Obaidul Quader, who also served as the minister of road, transport, and bridges in Hasina’s now-abolished final Cabinet, is nowhere to be seen. Reports suggest he left the country even before Hasina did.

Salman F Rahman, the prime minister’s private industry and investment adviser and a lawmaker, also fled the country on Sunday night, according to his confidants. However, the sources were unable to confirm which country he was heading to.

A Times of India report, citing sources, also said that India had received several requests from former Bangladesh ministers and leaders of her Awami League party to allow them to cross into the Indian side through land routes after borders were sealed.

Resentment and anger against Hasina

Hasina’s sudden exit from Bangladesh — she was reportedly given only 45 minutes to leave the nation — caught everyone, including her own party members, unaware. A senior military official, who did not wish to be named, told BBC Bangla that only the Special Security Force, the Presidential Guard Regiment and some senior military officers at army headquarters knew when Sheikh Hasina signed the resignation letter and boarded the military helicopter that would fly her out of her residence. The whole thing was done quite secretly.

Reports say that many within the Awami League “feel betrayed by Hasina’s sudden departure,” especially since she left them and the party’s activists to confront the protesters alone. The Diplomat reports that they had no knowledge that resignation and a safe exit were on Hasina’s mind, and thus they continued to follow her orders unquestioningly.

Reportedly, the Awami League leaders, who are now in hiding, said that had they known about Hasina’s plan, they would have either left the country or gone into hiding before it was too late.

Challenge to fill a power vacuum

Now with Sheikh Hasina’s departure and several of her party leaders in hiding, it seems almost impossible for the Awami League to fill the void. After all, the leadership of the party has been concentrated in the hands of Hasina and her family alone.

While Hasina was in power, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy enjoyed great privileges and was appointed as her personal adviser. However, he hasn’t been popular with the Bangladeshi people nor with his party activists, diminishing his legitimacy as a successor. Following Hasina’s abrupt departure, Joy’s prospects of playing an active role in Awami League politics seem slimmer than ever.

Moreover, the party has no clear leadership structure. This will make it even more difficult for the Awami League to contest the elections, which should take place soon under the watchful eye of the interim government.

As The Diplomat wrote, it seems unlikely that Awami League, the country’s oldest party, will be able to recover and regain its former status even in the next five years.

With inputs from agencies