At least 24 killed in hotel owned by Awami League leader in Bangladesh

DHAKA: At least 24 people, including an Indonesian national, were burnt alive by a mob in Bangladesh at a starred hotel owned by a leader of Awami League party after its leader Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country, local journalists and hospital sources said on Tuesday.

The victims, mostly boarders, were burnt alive late on Monday night as the mob set afire Zabir International Hotel owned by district Awami League general secretary Shahin Chakkladar in Joshor district.

“The dead included an Indonesian national,” a local journalist told PTI in Dhaka over phone.

He added the doctors at Joshor General Hospital confirmed they counted 24 bodies while surviving hotel staff feared more bodies could be found inside the debris.

Media reports suggested unidentified mob, opposed to the Awami League (AL) regime, set the ground floor of the hotel on fire which quickly spread to the upper floors.

There were almost identical reports from across the country where the angry mob simultaneously vandalised residences and business establishments of many Awami League leaders and activists, including its central office in Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.

Bangladesh descended into chaos on Monday after Hasina resigned, surreptitiously fled the country and landed in India while the army stepped in to fill the power vacuum.

As the news of Hasina’s departure spread, Dhaka and other parts of the country saw fresh round of violence in the already battered

South Asian nation with mobs resorting to street violence, vandalising government property and even breaking into Hasina’s government residence and looting the interiors.