Bangladesh violence: Protesters damage Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre, other key locations in Dhaka

Bangladesh violence: Unruly protesters damaged the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre (IGCC) and set fire to several key locations in Dhaka, including Bangabandhu Bhaban—also known as the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum—after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled with her sister following her resignation amid student-led protests that escalated into violence.

The Cultural Centre, which was formally inaugurated in March 2010, promotes bilateral cultural linkages between the two neighbouring countries by organising cultural programmes, seminars, and workshops and engaging India-based Gurus, professionals, and trainers in Yoga, Hindi, Indian classical Vocal Music, and Indian Dances such as Kathak and Manipuri.

The IGCC also engages high-class professionals from Bangladesh who trained under Indian Gurus or in Indian Universities.

The Centre, a cultural centre of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations of India, has a library with over 21,000 books on Indian art, culture, politics, economics, and fiction.

The protesters not only ransacked the ancestral home-turned-museum of Hasina’s family, where her father was assassinated but also stormed her residence, taking furniture and pulling food and raw fish from the refrigerators. One man was seen balancing a red velvet, gilt-edged chair on his head. Another held an armful of vases.

The unruly crowd didn’t stop there; people were seen storming into the parliament building and decamping with things. Theyalso damaged the house of the country’s chief justice and Hasina’s personal home in Dhaka.

Protesters climbed atop a statue of Hasina's father, state founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and began chiselling away at the head with an axe.

Meanwhile, Army Chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman announced that an interim government was being formed and urged protesters to end the violence. He called for peace and promised justice for those killed in weeks of unrest.

The former prime minister landed at Hindon Air Base in a C-130 transport aircraft. The IAF and security agencies monitored the aircraft's movement from its entry into Indian airspace to Hindon Air Base in Ghaziabad.