Bangladesh: Protesters attack supporters of ex-PM Hasina

Student protesters and activists assaulted supporters of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinain Bangladesh on Thursday.

Armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods and pipes, the protesters used violence to prevented the supporters of the former PM from reaching the previous residence of her father, assassinated independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in Dhaka.

The house in Dhaka's Dhanmondi area has become a museum to showcase mementos and other objects from a military coup on August 15, 1975, when Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family. The Bangabandhu Memorial Museum was torched by the protesters hours after Hasina's ousting earlier this month. The ousting followed weeks of unrest during which more than 300 people lost their lives.

Hasina called on supporters to march

Thursday is the anniversary of Rahman's assassination, and Hasina, now self- exiled in India, urged her supporters to pay their respects to her father.

The anniversary was viewed as a public holiday and a day of mourning under the Hasina administration. The new interim government has shelved the practice.

At the time of her father's death, Hasina and her younger sister were visiting Germany.

On Thursday, many of the supporters were manhandled while journalists were threatened for filming the incidents at the scene,  witnesses said.

UN expected to send fact-finding mission to Dhaka

Meanwhile, a United Nations mission is due to head to Dhaka next week to investigate alleged atrocities committed during the violent protests that saw the end of Hasina's time as leader.

"The mission will act independently," Gwyn Lewis, the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, told reporters. 

The interim government will extend every possible assistance the UN to make the investigation credible and impartial, Touhid Hossain, the foreign affairs adviser, told the media after meeting with Lewis. 

jsi/dj (AP, dpa)