On August 5, 2024, Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, fled the country to neighboring India, amid three weeks of intense mass protests. Before fleeing, under Hasina’s shoot-to-kill order, Bangladeshi security forces killed more than 1,000 mostly young Bangladeshis, blinded more than 400, and injured hundreds. An interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus now runs the country with the aim of transferring power to an elected political government after carrying out reforms. Hasina’s fall demonstrates that in a state where the population has been marginalized, as evidenced by a series of one-sided rigged elections in 2013, 2018 and 2024 and gross human rights violations, the protests marked a turning point.
In this meta-narrative about people and power, micro-narratives explain how Hasina’s authoritarian edifice was constructed over the years. This includes the promotion of a state-led culture of fear, the institutionalization of torture and serious human rights violations such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, perpetuation of widespread corruption scale, regional politics, geopolitics and the underestimation of the democratic resilience of the people. Yet, if one were to isolate the most critical factor that forced Hasina to flee, it would be the resilience of populations in the face of gross human rights violations. The fall of Hasina’s authoritarian government in Bangladesh can then be seen as a quest for human rights and dignity.
According to a conservative estimate, at least 2,500 Bangladeshis were killed extrajudicially between 2009 and 2022 and more than 700 Bangladeshis forcibly disappeared into illegal secret prison chains. Despite this, to the outside world, Hasina’s government has often been held up as a beacon of economic growth. A newspaper called Innovations: technology, governance, globalization, published by MIT Press dedicated a special issue to Bangladesh in 2021. The newspaper featured a primary propaganda essay written by Hasina and swept under the rug the reality of human rights violations committed by Hasina and her government. While some parts of Western civil society have been diluted by Hasina’s talk of economic growth, others have not. Organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have led persistent campaigns and pressure on the US government, and they have been successful. In 2021, the Biden administration invoked the Magnitsky Act to impose sanctions on the RAB and several of its senior officials.
The true extent of Hasina’s use of torture and human rights violations is not yet fully known. An interim report released by the newly established Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappearances was given to a selected journalist and researchers, including this author. The members of the commission visited illegal and legal detention centers of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the Detective Branch and the Counterterrorism Unit. Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTCU) of the Police, as well as National Security Intelligence. INS). It paints a chilling account of the systematic torture and murder of victims of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. The victims suffered brutal physical and psychological abuse in civilian and military establishments. These included soundproof rooms and the use of specialized instruments, such as electrocution devices on sensitive parts of the body. Victims reported acts of extreme cruelty, such as having their lips sewn without anesthesia, beatings with blunt objects, and forced mutilation. In civilian facilities, torture had become commonplace, occurring in shared spaces where officers continued their daily tasks amid the screams of detainees, while facilities under military control featured an infrastructure more calculated to inflict suffering.
The report also highlights how the Hasina government eliminated evidence and killed many victims of enforced disappearances. Victims were frequently shot in the head and their bodies thrown into rivers, weighted down with bags of cement to ensure they would sink. Other methods included staging deaths as accidents by placing bodies on train tracks or pushing victims into traffic. These killings were part of a systemic and coordinated effort involving multiple security agencies. In some cases, executions served as initiation rites for new personnel, underscoring institutional acceptance of such atrocities. It paints a grim picture of a system designed to silence dissent, sow fear and evade accountability, thereby perpetuating a cycle of human rights violations and impunity. It is in this context that the student protests began in June 2024.
The protest was based on the revision of the quota system reserved for public service jobs. A significant number – 30% of government admissions – were reserved for children of the Bangladesh Liberation War which took place in 1971. Students argued that it was a discriminatory system, designed to welcome people linked to the former ruling party, the Awami League (AL). Hasina called the students Razakars – a derogatory term for those who collaborated with Pakistani soldiers and acted against the independence of Bangladesh. This rhetoric pushed students to be more resilient, and Hasina responded with brute force. Six students were killed in one day. Among them was Abu Sayed, a student of the English department of a university in Rangpur, who was seen in videos and photos on social media spreading his arms in defiance of the progress of the police.
Hasina announced a curfew and deployed the army in addition to other security forces. Vehicles bearing UN insignia were seen on the streets and used against protesters, sparking international condemnation. Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations. Under international pressure, and sensing that its participation in the UN peacekeeping mission might be threatened, the army stopped participating in Hasina’s campaign. This boosted the confidence of the protesters who then transformed their quota reform movement into a movement demanding one point, namely Hasina’s resignation.
Bangladesh needs to accomplish two tasks diligently to ensure a smooth transition to democracy. First, although Yunus established six reform commissions to review various sectors of the state, including the constitution, security sector reform was not included. Although Yunus’ own commission on forced disappearances revealed some dark and inhumane practices, no initiatives have been taken to tackle these agencies. An elected government must therefore carry out these reforms so that appropriate parliamentary and judicial oversight is put in place to make security and intelligence agencies more accountable for their actions. Second, Yunus has held Bangladesh together in a serious moment of crisis, but a government without a formal public mandate is not viable and elections are expected to be called soon. A survey conducted by the Open Society Barometer (OSB) of the Open Society Foundation found strong support for civil and political rights in Bangladesh, with 82% valuing human rights and 79% demanding that the government deliver accounts in case of violation of rights. And support for democracy has always been strong.
Abroad, Hasina’s abrupt fall is particularly telling for the international community, which seemed divided in previous years. On one side is the United States, which strongly supports democracy and human rights. On the other hand, India, France and most European countries have supported Hasina, implicitly or explicitly. In times to come, the international community must align itself with the democratic aspirations of the Bangladeshi people, rather than prioritizing strategic alliances that neglect these fundamental concerns.
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