Bangladeshi protesters attack supporters of ex-premier Hasina and harass journalists

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Hundreds of student protesters and political activists in Bangladesh, armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods and pipes, on Thursday, assaulted supporters of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and prevented them from reaching the previous house of her father and assassinated independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the capital.

The house in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area was turned into a museum to showcase narratives and other objects about a military coup on Aug. 15, 1975, when Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members. The house, now called Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, was torched by the protesters hours after Hasina’s downfall on Aug. 5 following an uprising during which more than three hundred people were killed.

Rahman is fondly called Bangabandhu or, a friend of Bengal.

Thursday is the anniversary of Rahman’s death, and Hasina, now self-exiled in India, urged her supporters to commemorate the day by paying respect to Rahman. Previously, Aug. 15 was a public holiday and was observed as a national mourning day by Hasina’s administration. But that has been canceled by an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus following the ouster of Hasina, who survived in 1975 along with her younger sister because they were visiting Germany in 1975.

On Thursday, the protesters attacked Hasina’s supporters who attempted to get to the site. They manhandled many and checked the visitors’ phones and identity cards while threatening journalists for filming the incidents at the scene, witnesses said.

Another group of protesters on Thursday chanted “Naraye Takbeer, Allahu Akbar” or, “Allah is Great, Shout of Allah is Great” as they marched through streets in the area where the museum site remained blocked with barbed-wire fences.

The protesters, who arrived at Rhaman's house first on Wednesday, attacked a prominent actress, as she along with dozens of Hasina’s supporters reached there to light candles as part of the commemoration.

Overnight, they held a party using loudspeakers and playing songs as they danced outside the museum, which was set on fire during the anti-government demonstrations earlier this month. Videos of the party went viral on social media.

The protesters said they were out to stop the gathering of Hasina’s supporters as they could attempt to create chaos in the name of commemoration.

Sarjis Alam, a key organizer of the student protests, said Thursday that they would continue to demand the trial of Hasina as he led a rally in Dhaka's Shahbagh area.

Asked about the harassment of journalists by the students and other activists outside the museum, he said he would inquire about that but gave no details.

In the past, big gatherings took place on the premises of the museum, seen by many as a source of inspiration.

Hasina had asked supporters earlier this week to “pray for the salvation of all souls by offering floral garlands and praying” outside the museum, in her first public statement since her fall.

With no police in sight, the chaos remained in Bangladesh's capital throughout Thursday.

Sam Jahan, a video journalist for Reuters, protested against the harassment by the protesters, in a Facebook post.

“It is fair enough what you, the political activists, student protesters want to achieve, politically. But when you try to stop my rolling camera, resisting the freedom of the press and when you manhandle my colleagues, I will speak up,” Jahan wrote in the post.

The country's leading English-language Daily Star newspaper reported that their journalists faced trouble at the scene, and they were forced to delete photos and videos.

Mujib Mashal, South Asian bureau chief of The New York Times, in a video post on social media platform X said that it was a “complete mob rule.”

“The victims of yesterday are perpetrators of today; men armed with clubs and pipes (many identified themselves as BNP and Jamaat) thrashing and chasing away anyone they suspect of being Awami League,” he said.

The protesters have been demanding trial of Hasina for the killings during weeks-long violence and cases have already been filed against her and other close party colleagues and top police officials.

More than 300 people were killed in unrest that started in July with protests against a quota system for government jobs that later morphed into a movement against what was considered Hasina’s increasingly autocratic administration. The uprising eventually forced Hasina to leave office and flee to India, ending her 15-year rule.

Yunus took over as the interim leader. Sixteen people, including two student protest leaders and others, drawn mainly from civil society, have been included in the interim Cabinet.

He chose the new Cabinet members after talks between student leaders, civil society representatives and the military.

A sign saying 'This road will be open for all soon!' is posted on a barricade as protesters block the road in front of the former residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on his death anniversary in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

Protesters block the road in front of the former residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on his death anniversary in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

Student protesters rough up a supporter of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party suspecting him of paying respect to her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on his death anniversary outside his residence in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, August 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

Protesters carry sticks and Bangladesh flags as they block the road in front of the former residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on his death anniversary in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

A protester carries Bangladesh flag as he and others block the road in front of the former residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on his death anniversary in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

Military and paramilitary personnel stand guard as protesters block the road in front of the former residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on his death anniversary in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump wasn’t harmed in Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt as he golfed near his Florida club. But the second attack on his life in barely two months is likely to further unsettle an election cycle already marked by upheaval.

The man suspected in the incident, Ryan Wesley Routh, camped outside the golf course in West Palm Beach with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, according to court documents filed Monday. He is accused of lying in wait for the former president before a Secret Service agent opened fire, thwarting the potential attack.

Here are five things to know about what happened and where the investigation stands:

Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction and of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional charges are possible.

The suspect lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving in 2018 to Kaaawa, Hawaii. He and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business.

Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach on Monday. He had frequently posted on social media about the war in Ukraine and had a website where he sought to raise money and recruit volunteers to go to Kyiv to join the fight against the Russian invasion.

“Fight and die to stop aggression,” he posted on X in February 2023 about Ukraine. “Everyone should be outraged and helping.” In a video circulating online Routh said, “This is about good versus evil.”

He also wrote separately on X, “I am going to fight and die for Ukraine,” and he even traveled there.

Video shot by The Associated Press showed Routh at a small demonstration in Kyiv’s Independence Square in April 2022, two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of the country. A placard he was holding said: “We cannot tolerate corruption and evil for another 50+ years. End Russia for our kids.” Routh wore a blue vest with the U.S. flag on the back.

That same day, Routh also visited a makeshift memorial to “Foreigners killed by Putin.”

But Routh never served in the Ukrainian army or worked with its military, said Oleksandr Shahuri of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command.

Routh's politics, meanwhile, don't appear consistently aligned to one party or the other.

In June 2020, he offered a post on X directed at then-President Trump to say he would win reelection if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct. That year, he also posted in support of the Democratic presidential campaign of then-U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who has since left the party and endorsed Trump.

However, in recent years, his posts suggest he soured on Trump, and he expressed support for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In July, following the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania, Routh urged Biden and Harris to visit those wounded in the shooting at the hospital and to attend the funeral of a former fire chief killed at the rally.

Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state’s Democratic Party primary in March 2024. Federal campaign finance records show Routh made 19 small political donations totaling $140 since 2019 using his Hawaii address through a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.

Records show that while living in Greensboro, North Carolina, Routh had multiple run-ins with law enforcement. The top FBI official in the Miami, Jeffrey B. Veltri, said Routh has numerous felony charges for stolen goods between 1997 and 2010. He also was the subject of a closed investigation in 2019 when someone reported he was in possession of a firearm despite his felony convictions, but Veltri said the tipster would not confirm making the report.

Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records.

Authorities spotted a firearm poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course around 400 to 500 yards from where Trump was playing. As the former president was moving through the fifth hole's fairway, an agent who was visually sweeping the area of the sixth hole's green saw the subject, armed with what he perceived to be a rifle, and immediately discharged his firearm, said acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. of the U.S. Secret Service.

Rowe said Routh “did not have a line of sight to the former president” and did not fire at Secret Service agents before fleeing.

Routh sped away before being captured in a neighboring county. Body camera footage of Routh’s arrest showed him walking backward with his hands over his head on the side of a road before being handcuffed and led away.

The suspect is believed to have been positioned at the tree line of the golf course from about 1:59 a.m. to 1:31 p.m. Sunday. A digital camera, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food were recovered from the area.

Trump’s protective detail has been higher than some of his peers because of his high visibility and his campaign to seek the White House again. His security was bolstered days before the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania because of a threat on Trump’s life from Iran, U.S. officials said.

Trump initially posted, “I AM SAFE AND WELL!” and subsequently praised the Secret Service for protecting him.

But the former president pivoted Monday to the politics surrounding the incident, claiming — without evidence — that Biden and Harris comments that he is a threat to democracy had inspired the latest attempt on his life.

“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at," Trump told Fox News Digital. In a subsequent post on his social media site Monday, Trump wrote that the left “has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.” He said “it will only get worse,” then veered into comments about immigration, even though there is no evidence immigrants were involved in the incident.

The former president made those comments despite his own long history of inflammatory campaign rhetoric and advocacy for jailing or prosecuting his political enemies.

Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in the presidential election, posted on X that she was "glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.”

Biden also avoided politics in his reaction. He said Monday that the Secret Service “needs more help” and urged Congress to provide additional resources to help the agency.

“America has suffered too many times the tragedy of an assassin’s bullet,” Biden said at the start of an address to the National HBCU Week Conference in Philadelphia. “It solves nothing. It just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it and never give it any oxygen.”

Trump hasn't announced any changes to his schedule and spoke live on X on Monday night from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Still, a presidential race already rocked by Biden giving up his reelection bid and the first attack on Trump now is being further shaped by a second one. The leaders of a congressional bipartisan task force investigating Trump's Pennsylvania shooting said they have requested a briefing by the Secret Service.

“We are thankful that the former President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,” Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., said in a statement.

Weissert reported from Washington.

Ryan Wesley Routh holds up a banner during a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Photos that show an AK-47 rifle, a backpack and a Go-Pro camera on a fence outside Trump International Golf Club taken after an apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, are displayed during a news conference at the Palm Beach County Main Library, Sunday. Sept. 15, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Stephany Matat)

This photo provided by the Martin County Sheriff's Office shows Sheriff's vehicles surrounding an SUV on the northbound I-95 in Martin County on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Martin County Sheriff's Office via AP)