Protests in Bangladesh have suddenly escalated, resulting in the collapse of the authoritarian government, and the flight of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, reports Zahid Rahman 

After fifteen years in power, the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina has come to an end. What began as peaceful protests against the civil-service quota system escalated into a full-scale revolution after a harsh crackdown by security forces on student demonstrators. The initial protests were largely composed of students, but the government’s violent response galvanised wider participation from the general populace.

After a week-long hiatus in demonstrations the weekend saw a new flame. Over eighty demonstrators were killed just on Sunday, as were thirteen police officers after a station was attacked: the extreme escalation of violence is a testimony to the desperation of the Awami League regime under Sheikh Hasina to quell the movement.

The protest resumed on Friday as thousands were mobilised in the Central Shaheed Minar, Martyr’s Monument, a landmark that commemorates the students killed by the security forces in what was then East Pakistan during the Language Movement of 1952; a symbolic location to relaunch the student-led protests.

On Monday 5 August, a protest dubbed the ‘Long March to Dhaka’ began in the Uttara suburb on the edge of Dhaka with tens of thousands turning out under the conditions of an Internet blackout, a halt to all transportation services, and a heavy, indefinite curfew. A student coordinator of the movement, Asif Mahmud, commented to the media about the then-upcoming march, ‘The time has come for the final protest’.

The protest included a wide coalition of Bangladeshi society from students and white-collar professionals to factory trade unionists and rickshaw pullers carrying protestors forward towards the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s official residence. The police, reeling from the previous day’s casualties, redirected some resources to protect their stations, reducing their capacity to confront the march. Clashes along the route resulted in further casualties among demonstrators.

The military, on the other hand, stood aside after Friday’s meeting between the military chief Waker-Uz-Zaman and junior officers who had expressed reservations about firing on their fellow countrymen. Sheikh Hasina’s official residence was stormed and her resignation was announced. In the climax of these events, she fled the nation in a helicopter towards India, a country she and her family have had close connections to for decades.

After the events, General Waker-uz-Zaman addressed the nation announcing an interim government, calling for calm and unity, and promising ‘justice’ for the demonstrators. However, student leaders have shown scepticism about the military, scepticism the previous decades of military rule in the 1970s and 1980s have created. The upper echelons of the military had backed the now ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina until the tide turned.

Across the nation in cities and towns, jubilant crowds have celebrated the regime’s downfall. The statue of Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina’s father, once a symbol of Bangladeshi self-determination but now associated with her family’s regime, has been toppled. Murals have also been damaged or destroyed, signalling a profound rejection of the old order. In a previous article on Counterfire, the possibility of the regime’s collapse was left uncertain. It is now confirmed: the regime has crumbled under the weight of popular dissent.