Religious hardliners in Bangladesh removed a controversial statue depicting the blindfolded Greek goddess of justice from outside the nation’s supreme court because the artwork was deemed ‘un-Islamic’.
The hardliners want the empty space filled with a giant Koran instead.
However, the sculptor, Mrinal Haque, who created the work choked back his tears as he watched his statue being torn down only six months after it had been erected.
He said it felt like ‘clearing a dead body’.
Haque told AFP: ‘Even my mother’s death did not make me so grief-stricken.’ He said adding the court’s decision represented a victory for Islamists who have staged months of protests against the statue.
The removal sparked demonstrations outside the court premises and on the Dhaka University campus, a secular bastion, from activists who see it as a worrying sign of creeping Islamisation.
Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of students and left-wing activists protesting the removal, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
‘It is a betrayal of the people. The depressing thing is that the government is using it as a political tool,’ top secular activist Imran Sarkar told AFP.
Haque said the authorities had ‘bowed to the Hefazat (-e-Islam),’ referring to the hardline Islamist group that held a series of protests demanding the statue’s destruction.
There was no official comment from the court or the government, but the attorney general said the removal had been discussed in the court on Thursday.
‘It was a decision of the court,’ he told AFP.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who leads the secular Awami League party, initially remained at a distance from the row.
She broke her silence last month to describe the statue as ‘ridiculous’ after inviting top Islamist leaders to her residence.
‘I don´t like it myself. It´s being called a Greek statue, but how did a Greek statue get here?’ she said.
‘It is a a piece of sculpture of a Bengali woman wearing a traditional sari, blouse, petticoat and bangles,’ he said.
Analysts said Hasina’s stand on the statue was part of her efforts to woo the Islamists and the country’s conservative rural electorate ahead of the general election, expected to be held some time next year.
Conservative Bangladesh has experienced increasing tensions between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners.
‘Her action has prevented the country from a destabilising and confrontational situation,’ spokesman Azizul Hoque Islamabadi told AFP.
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