AL leaders blame Hasina for public backlash

Awami League (AL) leaders are hiding themselves like an underground party’s members to escape public outrage after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government and her disgraceful departure from the country. Due to her wrong decisions and stubbornness, leaders, activists and supporters of the party that was in power for 15 consecutive years are now in danger.

AL leaders and activists cannot accept Sheikh Hasina's resignation and flight from the country with her family members in the face of a mass upsurge which started as a student movement.

According to them, if she resigned earlier, many lives would have been saved and the party leaders and activists would not have faced public anger.

Moreover, she did not give any indication that she might resign. She did not even give any direction to the party leaders for the coming days.

AL leaders think that Sheikh Hasina should not have made the party leaders and activists confront the people at the last moment.

While talking to the Daily Sun, an AL central committee leader said, “The biggest mistake of Sheikh Hasina's politics was her dependence on the administration, bypassing the party and the people. However, we never imagined that we would have to see such an outcome.”

The AL leader also said, “The dedicated leaders and activists of the party were deprived in the last 15 years. After listening to her family members and many others, she gave many opportunists many important positions in the party and in the government, which became a curse for the party.

“Sheikh Hasina actually could not come out from the influence of her family members.”

An independent lawmaker in the 12th National Parliament said, “Since the beginning of the quota reform movement, Sheikh Hasina and the party’s general secretary made wrong decisions one after another. What happened now was supposed to happen.”

It cannot be accepted that Awami League, the party that led the great Liberation War, suffered such a disaster, he added.

Cabinet members and AL leaders were shocked after hearing the news of Sheikh Hasina’s escape from the country on Monday afternoon. After that, most of the cabinet members and activists started looking for safe shelters. Many of them crossed the border earlier and others went into hiding.

Sources said the top leaders of Juba League, Swechchhasebak League, Chhatra League and other associate bodies of AL left the country earlier on Sunday (4 August) before Sheikh Hasina left the country on Monday (5 August).

Hasan Mahmud and Palak held

Former foreign minister Hasan Mahmud and former state minister for telecommunication and information technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak were detained at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital on Tuesday, when they tried to leave the country. Dhaka University Chhatra League General Secretary Tanbir Hasan Shaikat and Dhaka North Chhatra League President Riyaz Mahmud were also detained at the Dhaka airport, confirmed the authorities concerned.

Hasan Mahmud had been missing since Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday.

Palak was arrested from Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport. Sources at the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said airport officials and employees apprehended Palak when he was waiting at the airport’s VIP lounge to leave for Delhi on Tuesday afternoon. Later, Air Force officials took him away.

According to various sources, senior police officials associated with the Awami League are avoiding public gatherings. Many are staying at their relatives’ houses instead of going to their own homes or government bungalows.