The palace of ex-Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina will become a museum of revolution

DHAKA – The once opulent palace of autocratic ex-Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina will become a museum to honor the revolution that toppled her, the leader of the interim government said Oct. 28.

“The museum should preserve the memories of her misrule and the people’s anger when they removed her from power,” Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus said as he visited the ruined Ganabhaban Palace, the prime minister’s former official residence.

The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer was appointed as the country’s “chief adviser” after the student uprising forced Hasina to flee by helicopter to India on August 5.

Hasina’s 15-year rule has seen widespread human rights abuses, including mass detentions and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents, and a Bangladeshi court this month issued a warrant for her arrest.

More than 700 people were killed before Hasina’s fall, many as a result of brutal police repression.

As she fled, thousands of people stormed her former residence, which the government said was a “symbol of repression.”

The walls of the palace, looted and damaged in the chaos following Hasina’s escape, are covered in graffiti denouncing her fallen regime.