A group of protestors vandalised and set fire to the residence of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka on Wednesday while his daughter and deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was giving an online speech, PTI reported.

Rahman is a key figure in Bangladesh’s independence movement.

The protest, which began at around 8 pm, followed a call for a “bulldozer procession” towards Dhanmondi-32, which had earlier been converted into the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum, reported Prothom Alo. Protestors had also simultaneously announced a “March to Dhanmondi-32”.

Subsequently, they broke the entrance and entered the premises of Dhanmondi-32. Several videos shared on social media showed the residence ablaze. Witnesses said that the Army arrived at the site to persuade the protestors to refrain from vandalising, PTI reported.

Hasina fled to India on August 5 after widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government, which killed 560 persons. She had been the prime minister of Bangladesh for 16 years.

Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of the country’s interim government on August 8.

In her speech organised by the Awami League’s now-disbanded student wing Chhatra League on Wednesday, Hasina urged the citizens of Bangladesh to organise a resistance against the current regime, PTI reported.

“They are yet to have the strength to destroy the national flag, the constitution and the independence that we earned at the cost of lives of millions of martyrs with a bulldozer,” PTI quoted Hasina as saying in an apparent reference to Yunus’ regime.

“They can demolish a building, but not the history,” she added. “But they must also remember that the history takes its revenge.”

Earlier in the day, Sharif Osman Bin Hadi, convener of Inqilab Mancha and a member of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee, called students marching to Dhanmondi in a series of posts on Facebook, Prothom Alo reported.

Hasnat Abdullah, convener of the anti-discrimination student movement, at 7 pm also wrote on Facebook: “Tonight, Bangladesh will be free from the pilgrimage site of fascism.”

Rahman’s house had become an iconic symbol in the history of Bangladesh as he had largely led the pre-independence autonomy movement for decades from there. It was turned into a museum during Hasina’s regime and would be visited by heads of state or dignitaries in line with state protocol.

The house was also set on fire on August 5.

Rahman was assassinated on August 15, 1975. His sons and their wives, his brother’s family, and other close colleagues and associates were also killed on the same night by the Army as part of a coup.

‘All efforts being taken to bring back Hasina’

Earlier in the day, Bangladesh Home Adviser Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said the interim government was making all efforts to bring back Hasina and others from India under the extradition treaty, PTI reported.

“We are arresting those who are staying in the country,” the news agency quoted Chowdhury as saying. “The main person [Hasina] is not in the country. How we would arrest them who are abroad?”

He added that legal processes were underway to bring them back to Bangladesh.

“We are trying to bring back those who are under trial on charges of crimes against humanity at the International Crimes Tribunal,” Chowdhury added.

On January 6, the International Criminal Tribunal in Bangladesh issued arrest warrants against Hasina and 11 others, including former military generals and an ex-police chief, for their alleged role in enforced disappearances during the 16-year reign of the Awami League.

More than 60 complaints related to enforced disappearances, murders and mass killings had been filed at the tribunal against Hasina and leaders of the Awami League, among others.

This was the second warrant the tribunal had issued against the deposed prime minister. The first one was issued on October 17 against Hasina and 45 others on charges of committing crimes against humanity during the protests between July 15 and August 5.

On January 7, the interim government also revoked the passports of Hasina and 96 others for their alleged role in the crackdown on protestors during the protests against the Awami League government in July and August.

The passports were revoked weeks after the interim government said on December 23 that it had sent a note verbale, or an unsigned diplomatic communique, to India formally seeking Hasina’s extradition.