As the attack was underway, a prominent leader of a student protest movement that led to Hasina’s ouster in August said the Jatiya Party should be “destroyed” for its support of her government.
Hasnat Abdullah, the student leader, claimed in a Facebook post that the Jatiya party was “a national betrayer.”
Abdullah is from the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, which spearheaded the July protests. He also urged students to gather at the Dhaka University and march toward the Jatiya Party headquarters.
Mujibul Haque Chunnu, the party’s secretary general, blamed the students for the attack. “People are watching what they are doing with us,” he said. “It is live in social media … they are doing it publicly, openly.”
Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party ruled the country for 15 years, since 2009. Her critics said the Jatiya Party had acted to give Hasina’s rule a veneer or democracy as other major political parties did not take part in the elections.
