Bangladesh in 2024: What’s Next?
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sentenced to a six-month jail term in Bangladesh on January 1st, 2024 because of violating the country’s labor laws. In August, he was appointed as the head of Bangladesh’s Interim Government by the President.
Interesting.
What’s happening here?
Bangladesh has been grappling with violence and protests since the last two months. It started in late June over students demanding that a controversial quota system reserving up to 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 against Pakistan be scrapped. Tensions escalated when students at Dhaka University, the country’s largest, clashed with police and a counter-protest poured oil on the fire. According to the students, the protests were peaceful until the student wing of Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League party got violent.
The job quotas were halted amid protests in 2018, but a high court judgment brought back the quotas due to petitions filed by the relatives of the veterans. The protests were fuelled by the nearly 2.14 million unemployed youth in Bangladesh, who took part in the demonstrations to protest against unemployment and the quota system.
The protests soon turned violent, with Prime Minister Hasina referring to the protesters as “terrorists” and ordering the police force to shoot at sight and the overall death toll from clashes in Bangladesh up to over 440 people (including minors). This follows the deaths of 95 people (including both protesters and police officers) on August 4th, the deadliest day in weeks of anti-government demonstrations. [1] There were incidents of vandalism, arson, and violence all across the country.
Resignation of Ms. Hasina
According to reports, when the top brass of the military refused to order the soldiers to open fire at the protesters, the military asked Prime Minister Hasina to resign. Her official resignation came on the 5th of August, hours before protesters stormed her official residence.
It was a free-for-all in the Bangladeshi Capital.
People ransacked the official residence of the PM, they slept in her bed, sat on her sofas, clicked pictures in the house, swam in the garden pool, and according to some reports, even stole food from the pantry. Protesters also stormed into the Parliament, the tore down statues and portraits all over the country. The statues of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh were broken and torn down. Portraits of Sheikh Hasina were broken.
What Now?
Sheikh Hasina has fled the country and is currently in a safe house in Delhi after she landed in the Hindon Air Force Base outside Delhi. According to reports, she is going to apply for political asylum in many countries in Europe. As for Bangladesh, Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman has announced that an Interim government will be formed in the meantime, with the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as its head. The General said he was assuming control at “a critical time for our country” and urged people to trust him. In August, main opposition leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said Bangladesh must hold a general election within three months to form a new government. Mr Alamgir’s BNP was among the opposition parties to have boycotted the January elections citing a crackdown on political dissent that secured a fourth term for Ms. Hasina. Bangladesh’s borders have effectively been closed while the political uncertainty is being resolved, with major airlines suspending flights to Dhaka and long-distance bus services suspended. Train services to neighboring India, which were first paused in mid-July as the protests turned violent, have now been suspended indefinitely. [2]
Image Credit: NY Times