Sheikh Hasina addresses party rally last year. Photo: Delwar Hossain/ Wikimedia Commons.
The protests, initially led by students demanding reforms in the quota system in government jobs, took a violent turn in the last weeks of July
Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced during an address to the nation in the afternoon of Monday, August 5.
The Army chief also claimed to have taken full responsibility over the government, promising that an interim government would be formed soon after consulting all the opposition parties. He also appealed to the protesters to end their demonstrations with a hope that the violence would stop.
Waker-Uz-Zaman promised that he will make sure that all persons responsible for the killing of protesters are held accountable for their acts.
Despite the announcement of Hasina leaving the country, demonstrations continued throughout the day in Bangladesh. There were reports of Hasina’s former official residence being stormed and Dhaka’s international airport being shut down in the afternoon.
Protesters reportedly blocked roads at different places in the country, vandalized the statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, considered the founder of the nation, as well as the offices of Hasina’s Awami League. Attacks were also carried out against the offices of various other parties, and continued into the evening.
Over 300 people, including security personnel, have been killed and thousands of others have been injured in the protests so far.
The protests in the country have been ongoing for over a month now. The first weeks of the protests saw university students demand reforms in the quota system in the recruitment in government jobs, and were largely peaceful. Protests turned violent after they were allegedly attacked by members of the ruling Awami League Party under the cover of security in the third week of July.
Amid the intensification of the protests, the Hasina government called for all universities to be shut down, imposed a curfew and a communication blockade. A shoot on sight order was also issued to the army deployed to control the violence.
Over 200 people were killed and thousands were injured in clashes between the security forces and protesters in the following week of July.
On July 21, the country’s Supreme Court scrapped most of the quota, fulfilling the central demand of the protesters. Yet, the protests continued with growing demands for action against the perpetrators of the violence and against the government itself.
The second round of protests erupted on Sunday, August 3, with thousands gathered in different major cities in the country calling for Hasina to resign. Chittagong, one of the major centers of quota reform protests witnessed the hundred of thousands of people flooding the streets, waving national flags and shouting slogans against Hasina.
Over 100 people, including over a dozen security personnel, have been killed in Sunday’s protests.
Hasina’s government and her Awami League party had alleged that the violent protests were initiated as a part of a conspiracy against the elected government. Hasina had accused the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of collaborating with Jamaat-e-Islami, an extremist group, to provoke violence across the country in order to bring regime change in the country as they could not win popular elections.
According to a source on the ground, the violence during the quota reform movement was used by the imperialist powers led by the US to orchestrate regime change in the country. They also claimed that the new regime would be used to undo the secular and progressive reforms initiated by the Hasina government during her four terms.
In January’s national elections in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina had won her fourth straight term as prime minister since 2009. This was her fifth term as prime minister in total. She was first elected as prime minister in 1996. The US had questioned the legitimacy of the last elections in January.
