Amid the anti-quota protest there was a plan to oust the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in an attack modeled on what transpired in Sri Lanka last year, when protesters attacked the country’s former president Mahendra Rajapakse’s house in their efforts to change the regime.
Several ministers and ruling party leaders revealed this information to Dhaka Tribune.
Sources said that it was a pre-planned attack which was designed by a group of people of Bangladesh and another influential country. They had made this plan with a view to execution during the time of the student movement.
Their initial plan was to attack the Parliament and Ganabhaban amid the quota-reform movement on July 21, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was supposed to leave the country for an official visit to Spain.
But somehow after the clash erupted between the protesters and Chhatra League at Dhaka University campus on July 17, the plan got accelerated and the pre-planned political forces took control of the streets from July 18 and wrought massive vandalism across Dhaka and some other parts of the country.
Mentioning the points of Dhaka that the protesters targeted, sources said that if we analyze the spots, it is evident that their plan was to occupy the national Parliament building and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s official residence Ganabhaban.
On Thursday the protesters were responsible for massive vandalism and carried out arson attacks in several parts of Mohakhali, which is very close to Ganabhaban, the protesters tried to occupy the area of Mohammadpur and the adjacent area of Residential Model College which is just opposite to Ganabhaban, the protesters carried out several attacks on Dhanmondi 25 and other parts of Dhanmondi residential area which are very close to the Parliament and also close to Ganabhaban, the protestors set fires in Mirpur 10 and tried to occupy Mirpur-Agargaon which is another path to Ganabhaban.
On the other hand, there were several spots in Jatrabari and Uttara areas where massive clashes erupted between the protesters and the law enforcement agencies. Government sources said that the protesters tried to occupy these two main entry points to Dhaka so that no entity could enter into Dhaka to provide assistance to the authorities.
Sources also said that at least four groups of people were ready to make more chaos if the protesters were successful in occupying Ganabhaban and Parliament: the first group is from civil society, second group is from the Islamist forces, third group is from BNP and Jamaat, and the last group is turbulent insiders of the government.
The plan was to make the attack when the prime minister was absent from Bangladesh and those four groups planned to take advantage of the chaotic situation to take the charge of the new government.
It was their plan to install a new government comprised of members of those four groups backed by an influential country.
On Monday, Salman F Rahman the Advisor of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the media that there was a plan to topple the government through this movement.
While talking with Dhaka Tribune, AFM Bahauddin Nasim a joint general secretary of Awami League said that it was the attackers’ plan to occupy the Parliament and a very important house of Bangladesh to topple the government, but the government managed to thwart these efforts.
While talking with Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday Afternoon, State Minister for Information and Broadcast Mohammad Ali Arafat said: “BNP and Jamaat intruded in the movement of the students. The protesters’ demand was quota reformation but the BNP-Jamaat objective was to topple the government through their terrorist acts.”
