Dhaka: Ghulam Muhammed Quader, chairman of the Jatiya Party and a former ally of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, had his four-storey residence in the Uttara area targeted by a hostile crowd on a Monday morning. Quader recounted that he was having breakfast when stones began flying through the windows, shattering glass while a massive group gathered outside demanding his arrest and shouting slogans that branded him an Indian agent.
The 78-year-old politician alleged that supporters of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the anti-India group Inqilab Moncho orchestrated the violence. Protesters at the scene carried banners accusing Quader of betraying the blood of martyrs from the July-August 2024 uprising by maintaining communication with Hasina, who has lived in exile in India since her government fell.
The assault occurred only days after Quader acknowledged in a YouTube podcast that he remains in touch with Hasina on humanitarian grounds and that she desires to return to Bangladesh. Quader believes this acknowledgment, combined with his persistent criticism of the current administration under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, triggered the aggressive response. He pointed to deteriorating law and order, rising inflation, and restrictions on political dissent as core reasons why he has become a target for the ruling establishment.
During her tenure between 2009 and 2024, Quader's Jatiya Party served as an opposition fixture while maintaining a cooperative alliance with Hasina's Awami League. Unlike many associates of the former prime minister who fled the country following her ouster, Quader stayed behind to voice concerns regarding political freedoms, the exclusion of major parties from democratic processes, and the suppression of peaceful rallies. Following the recent parliamentary elections where his party failed to secure a seat, Quader has continued to decry what he views as an increasingly panicked and restrictive government response to public dissatisfaction.