Protest at Bangabhaban: An eyewitness account of violence

The following is an eyewitness account from Prabir Das, a photojournalist of The Daily Star, who was on duty at Bangabhaban on the night of October 22, 2024.

We were covering the protests in front of the Bangabhaban late in the evening. Protesters were demanding the resignation of President Mohammed Shahabuddin in light of the recent debacle over the resignation letter of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

I had positioned myself between the protesters and the army personnel guarding the president's residence. The armed soldiers were standing behind barbed wire fences trying to hold their ground as the swarm of students started becoming unruly with time.

At one point, someone said there was a large group of policemen coming towards Bangabhaban from the direction of the Rajuk (Dhaka city development authority) building. As soon as this was heard, a bunch of students ran in that general direction.

I ran after them, ready to take photos if anything happened.

Soon, protesters came upon a contingent of over 100 policemen. They cursed and pelted brickbats and pebbles at the policemen heading towards Bangabhaban. A few scuffles started at this point, but nothing serious.

As the policemen hastened to reach their destination, the protesters cornered a few straggling policemen and started beating them with sticks.

I told my colleague Shaheen Mollah, a correspondent of this newspaper, that we should intervene.

We tried to dissuade the protesters from beating the policemen, saying that these people were only here because they had a job to do.

Shaheen bhai and I were trying to counsel the protesters to avoid violence without instigation.

But the protesters did not pay heed to us.

One policeman, had blood streaming down his ears. I proceeded to shield him from the beating and was also hit in the process.

We helped the man through the stadium gates, while a bunch of protesters kept pursuing us. After reaching the main road, we hailed a bike and helped the policeman onto it.

Following the mass uprising in July-August, the relationship between police and protesters has continued to be tenuous. Due to police action during that time -- which involved shooting, killing and beating protesters -- they continue to face backlash from the public. During the uprising, some police personnel also lost their lives and sustained injuries.