THOUSANDS of protesters in Bangladesh took out their anger at exiled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday by destroying a home belonging to her family in the capital, Dhaka.

The attack was sparked by a speech that Ms Hasina planned to give to supporters from exile in neighbouring India, where she fled last year during a student-led uprising against her 15-year rule. 

The house had been home to Ms Hasina’s late father and Bangladesh independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who declared the country’s formal break from Pakistan in 1971. 

He was assassinated in 1975. Ms Hasina later turned the home into a museum.

Since she fled the country, some of her supporters have tried to gather there but have been attacked by Ms Hasina’s critics, who have attacked and set fire to several buildings.

On Wednesday, some protesters threatened to “bulldoze” the building if the former prime minister went ahead with her speech, which marked the start of a protest programme by her Awami League political party. 

As Ms Hasina began speaking, protesters stormed the house and started dismantling the brick walls, later bringing a crane and an excavator to demolish the building.

“They do not have the power to destroy the country’s independence with bulldozers. They may destroy a building, but they won’t be able to erase the history,” Ms Hasina said in response during her speech, even as the demolition continued.

She also called on the people of Bangladesh to resist the country’s new leaders and alleged that they took power by “unconstitutional” means.

Hasnat Abdullah, a student leader, had warned media outlets against Ms Hasina’s speech and announced on Facebook that “tonight Bangladesh will be freed from the pilgrimage site of fascism.”

Many of the protesters chanted slogans demanding Ms Hasina’s execution for hundreds of deaths during last year’s uprising against her. 

It was some of the country’s worst violence since independence.