WAR-REPORT: Protests erupted in Bangladesh in early July, when students began agitating against the reintroduction of controversial quotas for government jobs. The movement emerged amid widespread discontent with Hasina’s government, which had grown increasingly authoritarian during its fifteen years in power and had badly mismanaged the economy.
In January, Hasina and the ruling party had claimed a massive win in a deeply flawed election, giving her a fourth consecutive term. But her lack of support was already clear; the main opposition force, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), boycotted the vote and turnout was low.
Yet it was Hasina’s reaction to the protests that was her downfall. She sealed her fate when she decided to crack down rather than pursue dialogue with protest leaders. As demonstrations swelled across the country in mid-July, police and paramilitary forces reportedly killed more than 200 people – a level of political violence rarely seen in Bangladesh since its independence in 1971.
Even after the Supreme Court drastically reduced the job quotas on 21 July, protests continued to gather steam, advancing new demands, including accountability for the killings and the government’s resignation.
Hasina announced a strict curfew and switched off the internet, but images of the brutality had already spread rapidly on social media, inflaming anger at the regime. She tried to blame the BNP and other opposition parties for the unrest, and she deployed the army while police arrested protest leaders, ostensibly “for their own safety”.
In custody the detainees were forced to issue statements calling off the movement. But few Bangladeshis were fooled by her narrative that “anarchists” and “terrorists” were responsible for the violence.
On 4 August, a final, terrible round of bloodshed left close to 100 people dead, most of them protesters shot by police and ruling-party members acting as vigilantes. The next day, hundreds of thousands heeded student leaders’ calls to march on Dhaka, defying another curfew and internet shutdown.
Faced with the possibility of hundreds more deaths, Bangladesh’s newly appointed army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman – a distant relative of Hasina’s – made it clear to the prime minister that his troops would not step in to save the government. Hasina was eventually persuaded to resign, handing power to the country’s figurehead president Mohammed Shahabuddin.
She hurriedly flew to New Delhi – which has been a staunch ally of her government. As she was leaving, thousands of protesters stormed the official prime minister’s residence, taking selfies in Hasina’s bed and absconding with everything from paintings and ceiling fans to fish and chickens.
Meanwhile, the army chief was holding talks with the country’s major political parties – minus the Awami League – and civil society representatives (though not including student leaders). Soon thereafter, Waker addressed the nation, calling for calm and announcing that an interim government would take shape in the coming days.
While Waker is calling the shots, formal power now rests with the president, Shahabuddin. He has already dissolved parliament and will oversee the swearing-in of an interim government late on 8 August, following consultations with the army chief and student leaders.
