Bangladesh mob beats ex-PM Hasina's supporters on site of planned rally

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00:00Next let's take you to Bangladesh where today hundreds of activists attacked supporters of

00:05the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with bamboo rods and pipes. Now those are the images

00:11we're showing you there. It was a week ago that Hasina fled to India as protesters demanded an

00:17end to her 15-year rule over Bangladesh. More than 450 people were killed during that unrest.

00:26Well let's talk a bit more then about what happened today in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Our

00:32reporter Navadita Kumari was there at the protest. She joins me now. Navadita tell us first of all

00:40why tensions were running so high today and what it was that you witnessed?

00:46Yes there was quite a lot of tensions on the streets of Dhaka because Sheikh Hasina's party,

00:53the Awami League has requested their supporters to gather outside their old family house to pay

01:00tribute to the first president of the country Mujibur Rahman and that's Sheikh Hasina's father.

01:08It was on this day in 1975 when Mujibur along with most of his family members were

01:16assassinated in a military coup. So the supporters of Hasina's Awami League wanted to pay tribute

01:24but the rival parties of Hasina, the BNP and Jamaat, they gathered and they said they don't

01:32want this to happen and they pledged to resist their gathering. So whenever they found or suspected

01:39anyone to be Hasina's supporter they caught them and rounded them up and beaten them up with

01:47wooden sticks and plastic sticks. So at multiple locations we saw that there were

01:53surrounding some men and beating them up, their clothes were torn and they were being taken as a

02:00mark of trophy as if they have done something victorious. And also it was a local report said

02:07to scare off the rest of the Awami League supporters who were thinking of gathering at

02:12Mujib's house. The students say that it is more important to remember those protesters who were

02:19killed than to mark and pay tribute to killed people of one family. Until last year this day

02:27was marked as the national mourning day but the interim government just two days ago cancelled

02:34this public holiday and asked people to be back to their work. So we saw a lot of tension

02:41in the streets of Dhaka today. As you mentioned Navadita, the protesters want to focus on those

02:48450 people who were killed during the unrest to try and oust Sheikh Hasina last week and I

02:56understand the authorities are trying now to turn the wheels of justice and Sheikh Hasina herself,

03:03the former prime minister, has been charged. Yes, there has been at least four murder charges

03:10framed against Sheikh Hasina and over a dozen of her ex-ministers, at least three of her ex-ministers

03:17have been prisoned. And local reports say that because there is so much fear and anger and hate

03:26against Sheikh Hasina that no lawyers are coming forward to even defend these ex-ministers. And

03:33rights groups say that at least there should be free and fair trial and the rule of law should

03:38be respected. And it's clear that right now the rule of law is not respected that much and law

03:46and order situation remains still far away from being stable in the country. Navadita Kumari

03:53talking to us there from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Great to speak to you.

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