Bangladeshi students on guard as exiled PM urges show of strength

Hundreds of Bangladeshi students wielding bamboo rods patrolled the site of a planned gathering Thursday of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina's supporters, vowing to quash any show of strength.

Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter last week to neighbouring India, where she remains, as student-yet protests flooded Dhaka's streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted 15-year rule.

Thursday is the anniversary of the 1975 assassination of her father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during a military coup -- a date her government had declared a national holiday.

Previous years saw huge rallies around Bangladesh to mark the occasion, but the students who toppled Hasina were eager to ensure supporters of her Awami League party did not have a chance to regroup.

"Awami League will try to create chaos on Thursday in the name of observing (the) mourning day," prominent student leader Sarjis Alam told reporters the previous day, accoding to the Daily Star newspaper.

"We will remain on the streets to resist any such attempts."

With no police in sight, hundreds of students on Thursday patrolled the street leading into Hasina's old family home where her father and many of her relatives were gunned down nearly 50 years ago.

The landmark was until recently a museum to her father, but it was torched and vandalised by a mob hours after her fall.

In her first public statement since her abrupt departure, Hasina had this week asked supporters to "pray for the salvation of all souls by offering floral garlands and praying" outside the landmark.

Thousands of civil servants were required to join public demonstrations marking her father's death during her tenure.

Awami League organisers would also set up temporary public address systems around Dhaka to blare Mujib's old speeches and devotional songs praising his leadership.

The caretaker administration now running Bangladesh cancelled observance of the politically charged holiday on Tuesday, requiring bureaucrats to remain in the office.

And on Thursday, the prevailing sound in the city of 20 million people was the horns and motors of its perennially gridlocked traffic.

- 'Identified and punished' -

Hasina's statement came hours after a court in the capital opened a murder case into her, two senior Awami League allies and four police officers related to last month's unrest.

Several other top Awami League politicians have also been detained in unrelated probes, including former law minister Anisul Huq and business adviser Salman Rahman.

Hasina's statement also demanded an investigation into violence during the unrest that forced her out of office, with the culprits to be "identified and punished".

Police weaponry was the cause of the more than 450 people killed during the protests that ousted Hasina, according to police and hospital figures previously gathered by AFP.