A petrol bomb was thrown at the ancestral home of former Bangladesh cricket captain and former Bangladesh Awami League MP Shakib Al Hasan on Wednesday night, hours after he appeared virtually at a press conference alongside former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in India, the party has said.
The attack took place around 8.45 pm local time at Shakib Al Hasan's ancestral residence in the Keshabmor area of Magura town, according to media reports. The house was also reportedly vandalised.
“A grisly petrol bomb attack took place at the residence of Bangladesh’s celebrated cricket icon Sakib Al Hasan, hours after the world famous star cricketer appeared at a press conference with honourable party president Sheikh Hasina. Ahead of the press conference, BNP, Islamist Jamaat and NCP all publicly threatened national media outlets to weaponise judiciary to sue in case of reports of the press conferences,” Hasina's party said in a post on X.
HT couldn't independently verify the attack. There was no immediate reaction from authorities in Bangladesh.
{{/usCountry}}HT couldn't independently verify the attack. There was no immediate reaction from authorities in Bangladesh.
{{/usCountry}}The incident came shortly after Sheikh Hasina addressed a virtual press conference organised at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in New Delhi.
Calling it a calculated attack, the Awami League said that it was “yet another testament to ongoing genocidal campaign” against the party activists in the name of “democracy building project”.
What Sheikh Hasina said
Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday that although she was forced away from her country in 2024, she was “never separated” from her people.
Holding her first press conference in Delhi at a Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia event, which she joined remotely, Hasina's voice choked repeatedly while remembering her father, family and countrymen who were killed in Bangladesh's war of Liberation and since then.
“For the last two years, I watched my beloved Bangladesh suffer...This is not the Bangladesh we built; this is not the Bangladesh for which 3 million people sacrificed their lives in 1971,” she told the gathering.
She alleged that “organised groups" turned genuine student demands into a “violent political instrument", claiming the movement evolved into a one-point demand seeking her resignation.
"Let me begin with the truth about July and August 2024. It was not a peaceful student movement. From the beginning, my government tried to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue, legal process, and patience. But behind the language of reform, organised groups were working to turn students' demands into a violent political instrument," she added.
Asked the exact date of her return to Bangladesh, Hasina said that she would reveal the details “when the time comes”.