Khurshid Alam 
In an interview with the Indian magazine, the Economic Times, the former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina accused the US of engineering her ouster. “I could have remained in power if I had surrendered the sovereignty of Saint Martin Island and allowed America to hold sway over the Bay of Bengal,” she said. Saint Martin Island is a three-km wide island in the Bay of Bengal that she claimed the Americans wanted for a naval base.
She said her other reason for resigning was “that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over the dead bodies of students, but I did not allow it,” she claimed.
Most observers familiar with her autocratic rule and the last few days of her hold on power would strongly disagree. Under her rule, Bangladesh was a virtual colony of India. Every major government department was controlled by Indian citizens. So much for Bangladeshi sovereignty.
The day before she was forced to resign, 135 people were killed, most of them students, across Bangladesh. Her regime had imposed a curfew and ordered the security forces to shoot on sight. The police, paramilitary forces as well as the ruling party, Awami League’s thugs indulged in gruesome violence. The enraged students attacked a number of police stations forcing the latter to flee.
Sensing that the situation was getting out of control, she ordered the army to shoot protesters and impose law and order. The army chief, General Waker-uz-Zaman refused. It was not because he had any pangs of conscience in killing his own people.
Junior officers of the Bangladesh army—captains and majors who are on the frontline with the troops—made it clear to their superiors that they will not shoot at civilians. The army top brass could not risk a revolt in its ranks. After all, Bangladesh has a history of junior officers staging a revolt and taking over.
On August 4 night, there was an extremely tense meeting between Sheikh Hasina and the army chief. Dubbed the ‘Iron Lady’ of Bangladesh, she reminded the general that he had been elevated to the top spot by superseding several senior generals.
Sheikh Hasina now expected him to reciprocate the favour by crushing the student movement to keep her in power. Besides, General Waker-uz-Zaman is married to a distant cousin of Sheikh Hasina.
According to inside sources in the prime minister’s house, Hasina’s angry demands were politely rebuffed by the army chief. The dragon lady assumed that she had inherited the mantle of power because her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had led Bangladesh’s movement for independence. It was her birth right to rule the country.
Being in power for 15 years—albeit through successive fraudulent elections—merely reinforced her feeling of entitlement. Most political opponents were either imprisoned or hanged. The Jama‘at-e Islami, a religious party, was banned outright and most of its leaders hanged following kangaroo trials.
In the past, protests, whether by students or workers, were ruthlessly suppressed. Sheikh Hasina thought it would be the same this time. The army chief’s refusal to oblige left her stunned. Pleas by close aides and her sister Rehana to not intensify the crackdown, fell on deaf years. It was only after a long phone conversation with her US-based son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy that finally persuaded her to relinquish power.
As the protesters, mostly students but now also joined by members of political parties as well, converged on her residence, the army gave her 45 minutes to pack her bags and leave. It is almost certain that had the students got hold of her, she would have been lynched. Their anger was fuelled by the murder of more than 450 students and the incarceration of thousands of others since the protests erupted in early July.
On August 5, Sheikh Hasina fled in such a hurry that she could not even deliver her resignation speech to be broadcast on television. A military helicopter took her out of the prime minister’s residence. She sought refuge in India, the real master of Bangladesh.
An Interim government headed by the Nobel laureate 84-year-old Muhammad Yunus has been sworn in. It includes three student leaders, academics, lawyers and civil society activists. Yunus was the students’ choice who insisted that they would not allow the military to dominate or dictate the new set-up.
While the students deserve credit for their perseverance driving the autocratic lady from power, Bangladesh faces an uncertain future. During her 15-year rule, she corrupted every institution in the country—the police, judiciary, bureaucracy—appointing her cronies to key positions. Bangladesh was turned into her personal fiefdom. She was already grooming her son, Sajeeb to succeed her.
Many top officials including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Obaidul Hassan, governor of the State Bank as well as several police chiefs have resigned. With the police on strike fearing for their lives, students have assumed traffic control duties especially in the capital city, Dhaka. They are doing a far better job than the traffic police.
Student protests erupted over what is referred to as the quota system. It mandated that 30 percent of all government jobs will go to those who had participated in the struggle for Bangladesh independence in 1971.
Over the years, these benefits were extended to include the children and grandchildren of liberation fighters, as well as ethnic minorities, primarily Hindus who were heavily represented in the Awami League.
Since the government is the biggest employer in Bangladesh, the job quotas amounted to 56 percent of all government jobs. The students felt it was discriminating against them, 400,000 of whom enter the job market every year. In 2018, the Hasina regime had also announced the 30 percent job quota, only to scrap it after student protests.
Following the massively rigged elections in January 2024 that were boycotted by opposition parties, Sheikh Hasina felt emboldened to reintroduce the quota system via an appeal to the Supreme Court. In June 2024, the top court whose judges owed allegiance to Sheikh Hasina, reinstated the quota system.
It again led to student protests. In customary brutality, the regime sent in the police to attack students on university campuses. More universities joined the protests. They saw the quota system allocations as favouring Awami League supporters and creating a loyal cliental at the expense of the students’ future.
With Bangladesh’s economy in a downward spiral, largely the result of the pandemic but also massive corruption, unemployment soared. Far from addressing these issues, the regime resorted to more oppressive tactics.
Thousands of political workers, especially those belonging to the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jama‘at-e Islami simply disappeared. BNP leader, Khaleda Zia, in poor health, was placed under house arrest. She was released after Hasina fled the country. Many political prisoners have been released, but not all.
Family members of the disappeared have held rallies demanding their release or news about whether they are alive or dead. Mir Arman, a London-trained barrister, was kidnapped from his home in 2016. He was released after Sheikh Hasina’s escape.
For eight years, the regime denied any knowledge of his whereabout. Bangladesh’s notorious intelligence agency, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), had kidnapped him in the presence of his mother and two children.
Barrister Arman was part of his father’s legal team. His elderly father was put through a sham trial because he was a leader of the Jama‘at-e Islami and hanged. Other Jama‘at leaders suffered a similar fate.
Bangladesh faces two competing demands: reform of institutions corrupted during Hasina’s 15-year rule, or immediate elections. There is merit in both. The students want to set up their own political party to contest elections. This will take time.
What the Interim government ultimately decides will determine the future of Bangladesh.
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