Activists and leaders of the Awami League, whose political activities are currently staged a large, turbulent demonstration in Gopalganj on Sunday to drum up support for their upcoming 19 November lockdown programme. According to local reports from the district, protesters breached police barricades, vandalised public and private property, unlocked the shuttered district party office, and reverted the names of prominent local landmarks to their previous titles.
Gopalganj, long considered a traditional political stronghold of the Awami League and the ancestral home of its leadership, witnessed a dramatic escalation in street mobilisation despite the official restrictions imposed on the party following Bangladesh’s recent political transition.
From 11:00 am, thousands of party activists and supporters from surrounding unions and rural areas began arriving in the district town using motorcycles, vans, buses, and trucks. By midday, the crowd had converged near the town’s Shishu Park and the BSCIC industrial area before marching through Launchghat, Mahila College, and the Shilpakala Academy road. Demonstrators broke through police cordons to enter the main thoroughfares of the town.
Eyewitness accounts indicate that a substantial number of female activists joined the rally, while many male participants carried traditional wooden oars, sticks, and local weapons. Chanting slogans such as “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu” and “Sheikh Hasina will return, Bangladesh will smile,” the procession quickly turned destructive across several neighbourhoods.
Protesters smashed the glass facade of a local superstore named FNF and vandalised the July Memorial monument adjacent to Sheikh Kamal Stadium before setting it alight. Outside the municipal office, banners and festoons belonging to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) were torn down and burned in the middle of the street. Bonfires made of tyres, bamboo, and wood were also lit at key intersections, including Launchghat, Gopalganj Government College, and near the local Press Club. During a brief rally at Launchghat, Chhatra League leaders Raju Khan and Samsul Haque addressed the gathering.
In a symbolic assertion of their former political dominance, marchers hung a banner reading “Government Bangabandhu College” over the main gate of Gopalganj Government College. They later proceeded to the district Awami League headquarters and broke open the locks that had kept the office closed. At Gopalganj Science and Technology University, protesters also replaced the signage of “Hadi Chattar” with its former name, “Joy Bangla Chattar”.
Ahead of the scheduled programme, authorities had deployed heavy security across the district headquarters, stationing personnel from the police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and Armed Police Battalion (APBn) at sensitive points such as the Launchghat, central markets, and the Deputy Commissioner’s office, alongside heightened intelligence surveillance.
The unrest forced businesses across the town to pull down their shutters in panic, bringing local rickshaw and van transport to a standstill for several hours. Demonstrators began dispersing around 1:30 pm, and by 2:00 pm, their presence in the streets had largely diminished, allowing shops to cautiously reopen and normal traffic to resume.
