Bangladesh’s former minister of Sheikh Hasina's cabinet assaulted by mob during court appearance

Dhaka: A former minister of deposed Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet was allegedly assaulted by a mob during a court appearance on the outskirts of capital Dhaka, according to various newspaper reports on Monday.

The mass circulation Prothom Alo and several other newspapers reported that a group of people, including lawyers, opposed to the ousted regime attacked former law minister Anisul Huq as police was escorting him to a prison van.

The attack came after a court in Narayanganj river port town on the outskirts of the capital ordered him to be remanded in police custody for three days for interrogation on a murder case.

According to police, they quickly formed a security cordon around him. Prothom Alo newspaper said policemen started running to the van along with Huq at the court premises to prevent him from being injured seriously.

“As he was being brought out of the court after the remand hearing, some people beat him indiscriminately,” Prothom Alo said.

Huq, alongside many other ministers and leaders of Hasina’s Awami League, was accused of murders and corruption charges during the last year’s student-led uprising and several of them have been assaulted in the past months during their court appearance under police custody.

The upsurge ousted Hasina’s nearly 16-year regime forcing her to secretly leave Bangladesh for India on August 5, 2024 and three days later Professor Muhammad Yunus flew from Paris to take charge of an interim government as the nominee of the Students Against Discrimination (SAD), the platform that led the movement.