DHAKA — The ancestral home of former Bangladesh cricket captain and Awami League lawmaker Shakib Al Hasan was attacked in Magura on Wednesday night, hours after he virtually attended an event featuring ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
According to local authorities, a group of unidentified individuals threw bricks, smashed windows, and hurled petrol bombs at the residence, triggering a fire on the upper floor. The property was unoccupied at the time, and no injuries were reported.
The assault came shortly after Shakib participated in a virtual media interaction hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi. During the session, Hasina—addressing the press publicly for the first time since her removal from power in 2024—reiterated her intention to return to Bangladesh in December despite facing a death sentence handed down in absentia by the country’s war crimes tribunal. She also demanded that the political ban on her party, the Awami League, be lifted.
Shakib, who was elected to parliament representing the Magura-1 constituency in January 2024, has remained outside Bangladesh since the student-led uprising that toppled Hasina’s administration. He currently faces several legal investigations, including charges related to murder, financial fraud, and money laundering.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Hasina’s media address, calling it an “affront to the sovereignty of Bangladesh” and warning that permitting her to engage with the press from Indian soil risks damaging bilateral relations between Dhaka and New Delhi.
