New York City has become an unlikely battleground for Bangladesh’s bitter political divide, with rival camps planning showdowns centring the visit of interim government head Muhammad Yunus.
Two major political camps – one determined to prevent Yunus from entering New York and the other ready to welcome him – have shifted the country’s political spotlight from Dhaka to the American city.
The ousted Awami League leaders and supporters are vowing to block Yunus’s entry, while BNP and Jamaat activists are gearing up to greet him, leaders told TIMES of Bangladesh.
On Sunday night, a violent altercation broke out between Awami League and BNP supporters in Jackson Heights, escalating tensions between the two groups.
Denouncing Yunus as a national enemy, the US Awami League has staged multiple protest rallies in recent days.
Yunus is expected to arrive at John F Kennedy Airport at 2:20pm on Monday (NY TIMES), accompanied by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Jamaat-e-Islami Deputy Ameer Abdullah Mohammad Taher, NCP Member Secretary Akhtar Hossain, and other key political figures connected to the July Uprising.
He will stay at Hotel Grand Hyatt and attend the UN General Assembly.
AL leaders are mobilising supporters from several states, including California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Chicago, with several hundred activists already in New York, planning to gather at the airport for Yunus’s arrival.
Siddiqur Rahman, president of the US unit AL, has confirmed their plans for daily protests, including black flag demonstrations outside the hotel where Yunus will stay and during his address at the United Nations.
Meanwhile, BNP and Jamaat supporters are preparing for a reception at the airport, ready to prevent any disruption from AL’s actions. BNP leaders have called for heightened vigilance from their supporters, not only at the airport but throughout the city, until the end of the month.
BNP’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Golam Faruk Shaheen has criticised the Awami League, stating, “For the past 17 years, the Awami League has tarnished Bangladesh’s image with enforced disappearances, murders, corruption, and human rights abuses. The July Revolution last year toppled Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian regime.”
BNP-AL confrontation
Tensions boiled over in Jackson Heights on Sunday evening (Saturday in New York), as AL supporters attempted to disrupt a peace rally organised by BNP in support of Yunus.
Witnesses say nearly 200 BNP supporters gathered there, but the situation escalated when AL members arrived, chanting anti-Yunus slogans, leading to a physical confrontation.
New York police intervened to restore order.
Condemning the actions of the Awami League, former US unit BNP president Abdul Latif Samrat said, “Yunus is a global figure, and it is our moral duty to welcome him. But the Awami League is trying to humiliate him, and we will not allow that to happen in the United States.”
However, the US unit AL has accused BNP of instigating the violence in Jackson Heights.
