Violence after Hasina’s exit takes Bangladesh away from the liberal ethos advocated by its founders

This will be a new Bangladesh and it will be free of any fascist rule. The state will not fire on its students, and every citizen will have equal rights,” Bin Yamin Mollah, a student leader told THE WEEK from Dhaka. He is one of the coordinators of Students Against Discrimination (SAD), the anti-government movement which forced prime minister Sheikh Hasina to quit and escape to India.

The roots of the ongoing student movement lie in the protest against the quota system, which has been going on since 2018. The students rose in revolt against the system that reserved 56 per cent of government jobs for various groups, including 30 per cent for the families and descendants of veterans of the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. This forced the Hasina government to abolish the entire system. But, in June this year, the Bangladesh high court restored the quota, igniting a new wave of protests nationwide.

Starting from Dhaka University on July 1, students from across the country joined the protests. On July 15, the protests turned violent when members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of Hasina’s Awami League, allegedly attacked protesters on the Dhaka University campus.

As the situation escalated, the government responded brutally, resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people. Internet was blocked, curfew was imposed and protesters were allegedly shot by government forces and attacked by the ruling party cadres in broad daylight. Hasina, on the other hand, blamed the banned Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition party, for the clashes.

The harsh action against students highlighted the authoritarian nature of the Hasina administration and ignited longstanding socio-political and economic discontent among various sections of society. Starting from July 16, the anti-quota movement evolved into a broader uprising against the Hasina government.

“Ultimately, the movement was not limited to student protests,” said Raheed Ejaz, correspondent of the Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo. “It became a movement against inequality, lack of employment, shrinking spaces to voice dissent and the absence of power to exercise franchise.”

The protests briefly paused after the supreme court reduced the reservation for the descendants and families of independence war veterans to 5 per cent on July 21. Student leaders demanded an apology from the prime minister and the removal of ministers who had insulted the protesters. The government responded by arresting over 10,000 people, including six student leaders.

It is alleged that these leaders were coerced to give a call for ending the movement, leading the SAD to initiate a non-cooperation movement on August 3. The protesters had a single demand: the resignation of the prime minister. On August 4, Bangladesh experienced widespread violence, with clashes occurring in several locations and resulting in the deaths of at least 97 people, including 14 police officers. Thousands of protesters took to the streets, engaging in fierce confrontation with the police and Awami League workers.

On August 5, with protesters on their way to her residence Ganabhaban, Hasina resigned and fled. “The success of this mass movement is a reflection that people were not ready to accept the fascist regime of Sheikh Hasina any longer,” said Asad Bin Rony, a student leader associated with SAD. “Now we will build a Bangladesh which our forefathers envisioned, where everyone will be equal.”

However, the scenes that have been unfolding after the exit of Hasina may take Bangladesh far from where its founders wanted it to be. An unruly mob attacked and looted the prime minister’s residence, desecrated Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statues, vandalised the parliament building and set ablaze cultural institutions such as the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum and the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre in Dhaka. The lawlessness led to the deaths of more than 130 people on August 5, making it the deadliest day of violence so far during the ongoing crisis.

“This is a revolution. People must not confuse it with normal power transition. The former prime minister didn’t leave her seat peacefully on normal terms,” said Mollah. “Right now, we don’t have people in key positions of the administration. As a result, the law and order situation has gone out of control. The interim government will soon take charge and peace will be restored.”

But even after President Mohammed Shahabuddin, SAD representatives and three service chiefs jointly decided to have Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as head of the interim government, the law and order situation continues to deteriorate. Army chief Waker-uz-Zaman’s appeal for peace seems to have little effect as the country’s institutions, too, have came under severe attack.

A section of the protesting students have already voiced their concerns. “People are still getting killed. Minorities are also being attacked. This is not what we wanted when we started our movement,” said Mohammed Moajjam Hossain, another SAD coordinator. Students alleged that the violence and vandalism of the last two days were carried out by Awami League cadres. “They are doing this to tarnish the image of our movement so that they can win back popular support,” said Mollah.

These developments have raised the question whether the students have failed to keep control of the movement among themselves. “There is every chance that other elements have joined this movement,” said Ejaz, the journalist. “What we have seen on streets across the country is that families, juveniles and the elderly joining the movement. So, of course, the elements [opposition political parties and extremist religious outfits] are there. This is the reason we are seeing this vandalism and violence.”

Ejaz said the liberal ethos and secular values on which Bangladesh was founded could be put under further threat if mob violence did not stop.