Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh was forced to step down and leave the nation as the student uprising that began at Dhaka University a month ago descended into violence.  The longest-ruling PM of Bangladesh since liberation, Hassina resigned and fled the country with her sister Rehana on Monday (August 5). Following this, the chief of the Bangladeshi Army Waker-Uz-Zaman announced in a TV address that they would take the initiative to form an interim government.  As at least 90 people were killed in Sunday’s violence, the situation in Dhaka became out of control, and the Prime Minister was forced to depart not only the office but also the nation. 

Babar Ali, a doctor turned mountaineer and social activist, from Bangladesh says, “Bangladeshi People have taken departure of Hassina as the end of a decade-long dictatorship.”  A permanent resident of Chittagong Ali adds, “Actually, the citizens of Bangladesh were fed up with the corruption in the country and the dictatorial behaviour of Prime Minister Hasina.’  He has spoken over the phone with OnlineKhabar’s correspondent, Gaurav Pokharel regarding the state of Bangladesh and the student movement.  Experts:     

So what’s going on in Bangladesh? 

The dictator, Sheikh Hassaina, has left the country. She left maybe around 12.

She went from West Bengal to Kolkatta. So, there are some rumours that she will fly to London. Her nephew is an MP in the UK. So, she left with her sister Sheikh Rihana and might go to London.   

Why were the students so disappointed with the government? 

Initially, it was about a quota reform. It’s not like against quota. But, it’s about the quota reforms. In Bangladesh, the warriors who fought for Bangladesh in 1971 during our Liberation, used to get a good number of quotas. So now it has been almost 53 years since our liberation. Still, their family members were getting the quota. Most of the freedom fighters are dead actually. Initially, their son and daughter were getting quotas in all civil service exams. Now, their grandchildren were getting the quotas.  For different service exams, it was a different percentage, almost 30 to 40 per cent of quotas in civil exams. 

However, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh overturned the quota system a week ago, yet protests continued. What was the reason behind it? 

Yes, the Supreme Court reformed the quota. But, So many people were killed during the protest. The number is at least 250. Most of them were killed by the police and the student organisation of the ruling political party Awami Leauge. Then the movement was started for justice.

So, justice needed to be served. They want justice and they want all the accused people who gave orders to quit. They don’t have arms or anything like that.  But, still, there were some operations by the government and more people were killed. So finally it came to like there was only one demand from the protesters – most of them were students – so there was the primary demand — PM should resign.   People shout slogans as they take part in a protest against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government demanding justice for the victims killed in the recent countrywide deadly clashes, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

Some people also believe that the protest had begun as a student movement but later got politicised and turned into an anti-government movement, do you agree? 

Yes, it was later transformed into a mass movement. It was not only among the students initially. It was only among the students earlier. The leaders there actually were all the university students. So initially there were only six people and all of them were university-going students. Later the six turned into hundreds and among them, 158 were total coordinators of the movement.   

They all were university-going people around 20-25 of age. Later, whenever, the movement turned into mass other political parties also joined. However, people from political parties were also not at a mass level. The Bengali People don’t even trust the opposition also. They were also in power earlier.

They didn’t do anything good. Those people who haven’t had any kind of political identity also joined. Even my friend, who was not involved in politics in whole life also joined the protest.