Thousands of protesters in Bangladesh stormed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s palace in Dhaka on Monday, with sources telling AFP that she had fled amid the mass demonstrations calling for her resignation.
Bangladesh’s Channel 24 aired footage of crowds rushing into the prime minister’s official residence in the capital, celebrating and waving at the cameras. Visuals from Bangladeshi TV channels depicted protesters raiding Hasina’s palace, overturning furniture, smashing glass doors, and carrying off books and various items, including a live chicken.
“I am inside the Ganabhaban Palace,” Bangladeshi journalist Yeasir Arafat told AFP. “There are more than 1,500 people inside the palace. They are breaking furniture and glasses”.
A source close to Hasina told AFP that the 76-year-old had left Dhaka with her sister for “a safer place”, adding that she had “wanted to record a speech but she could not get an opportunity to do that.”
The Prothom Alo daily also reported Hasina had fled the capital.
