Bangladeshi authorities removed a statue from the country’s Supreme Court premises representing Lady Justice depicting an iteration of Greek goddess Themis, after caving in to intense pressure by Islamist hardliners. The operation took place under tight security overnight.
The statue of a woman holding a scale and sword in her hands was installed in December outside the court building. The sculpture is wrapped in a sari, a Bangladeshi revision of the usual representation, the Greek goddess Themis blindfolded and clad in a gown.
Some people protested late Thursday night on an adjacent street in front of the court premises when workers removed the sculpture. The statue was covered and was kept nearby afterward.
Islamists oppose idol worship and consider the Lady Justice statue anti-Islamic, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a recent meeting with Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam that she did not like the statue.
The country of 160 million people is ruled by secular laws, but radical Islam has been rising.
In recent years dozens of atheists, liberal writers, bloggers and publishers and members of minority communities and foreigners have been targeted and killed.