'Police were afraid': Yunus on govt's inaction during demolition of Mujib's house
The police were afraid to go out on the streets. We were in a deadlock situation. We didn’t know how to handle it, he says
In a reflection on the government's inaction during the demolition of the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus today (11 June) said that the administration was caught in a deadlock and did not know how to respond.
Speaking at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London's Chatham House, Yunus said, "The police were afraid to go out on the streets. We were in a deadlock situation. We didn't know how to handle it."
"A lot of issues and questions came at the same time, and we cannot handle everything in a right way. It's kind of a period we have gone through and things have come down and come to an order... bringing order to the nation was a big task for us," he added.
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He was responding to a journalist's question regarding the administration's silence while city corporation bulldozers demolished Sheikh Mujib's house.
Yunus did not directly address the demolition itself but acknowledged the difficulties his interim government faced in regaining public trust and control.
"It was a time when the police themselves had lost legitimacy. People were saying: 'You shot my son, my brother, my sister — now you're telling me to go home?' They would've beaten up the police," the chief adviser said.
"That was the police we had inherited — the same police that shot at children just days ago."
He further said the situation eventually de-escalated. "Fortunately, time helped us. People began to accept the police again. Order has returned, and that was a major challenge."
On 5 February, a mob demolished the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum with city corporation bulldozers and set ablaze.
