Bangladesh Uprising - August 2024
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down 05 August 2024 following weeks of violent protests. Having served for a combined total of over 20 years (June 1996 to July 2001 and January 2009 to August 2024), Sheikh Hasina was the longest-serving Prime Minister in Bangladesh's history.
Deep Halar, "The Print" contributing editor journalist and author, stated, 05 August 2024 : "... these protests were preceded by the boycott India movement ... where Indian products were being boycotted... influencers did not just stop at that. They said that even Bangladeshi actors who are coming to India to act in the Bengali film industry and also in the Hindi film industry should stop doing so." Halar saw there were three phases to the protest. The first phase was the students who who had a complaint and that complaint was also addressed by the courts. In the second phase the Jamaat-e-Islami and also BNP opposition people engaged the student movement. At the third phase was the invisible "white Christian country" which was somehow keeping this whole thing together so that it was "very well orchestrated."
"The CIA hand needs to be talked about" because the American diplomats have been there. Before the elections American diplomats had been talking not just to the oppositionbut to jamaat and talking to the jamaat islamist radicals. The radical part of the BMP opposition party is also largely supported by the jamaat. Sheik Hasina is seen as more of a secular party compared to the BMP. The US wants a neighborhood for India which is unstable. He suggested there were many in the Indian establishment who felt that these protests were not really organic is there a third country that is at play here - the Third Country the white white Christian country which Hasina herself spoke about.
The role of foreign forces in toppling Hasina’s government has become a topic of discussion as well as concern. One of the organisations whose name has popped up repeatedly is the US Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID has been implicated in covert operations aimed at regime change. In case of Bangladesh, similar tactics that resemble CIA operations could have been used to mobilise students and opposition parties in the protests.
The US was widely perceived to be batting for the BNP in the lead-up to the vote, though the two governments have since attempted to move on from the tensions created by the elections. In November 2023, OpIndia reported that there were signs of foreign interference in Bangladesh’s internal affairs. With just two months away from the elections, the United States government, its agencies and the embedded media were called out for orchestrating a ‘regime change operation’ in Bangladesh.
Squadron Leader (retired) Sadrul Ahmed Khan, a member of the Awami League's finance and planning affairs sub-committee, shared with Sputnik India that it was clear that the US has been trying to make inroads in the South Asian region through its support for anti-government forces, which include the National Unity Government (NUG) and People's Defence Forces (PDF).
"As the Kuki-Chin rebels in Myanmar are majority Christian, they appear relatively prone to manipulations by foreign actors. The Kuki-Chin rebels in Myanmar's China state are involved in intense fighting with the Myanmar government forces," Khan underscored. The Awami League official pointed out that since last year, the Biden administration has made no secret of its support to the opposition forces in Myanmar after the US president signed the BURMA Act into law, which calls to provide "non-lethal assistance" for Myanmar's "Ethnic Armed Organizations".
Sheikh Hasina, while giving the example of East Timor, in late May 2024 asserted that vested interests ‘will carve out a Christian country, taking parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal’. She said that a “white man” who met her before the Bangladesh elections in January this year had assured her of facing “no problems” during the elections if she allowed them to build an airbase on Bangladesh’s territory. Considering that the US, supported by other Western countries, was widely accused of attempting to influence the 2024 elections in Bangladesh, it is quite clear that PM Hasina was pointing towards the US.
Zalengam is being perceived as an ideologically based territory that would be inhabited by the predominantly Christian Kuki-Chin-Zo clans that have trans-border ethnic relations across India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. The demand for ‘Kukiland’ goes back to 1960, wherein the Kuki National Assembly had asked the then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru to create a Kuki state, it was in the 1980’s when the insurgent group Kuki National Organisation took up the cause. In Bangladesh, the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) is a banned ethno-nationalist militant group based in the Chittagong Hill Tracts with an armed wing called the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA).
Derek J. Grossman noted, howecer "If you say/suggest US or CIA specifically had any role in Bangladesh’s political chaos, think again. How would this benefit US interests? India is a critical strategic partner vs China. Now, the Army could strengthen ties to Beijing. Islamic extremism there could breed terrorism."
On July 20, 2024, the US State Department allowed for the voluntary departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and family members. Travelers should not travel to Bangladesh due to ongoing civil unrest in Dhaka. Demonstrations and violent clashes have been reported throughout the city of Dhaka, its neighboring areas, and throughout Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh has declared a curfew throughout Bangladesh, ordering everyone to stay indoors. The Bangladeshi Army has been deployed throughout the country to reinforce the police. Telecommunications have been interrupted in Dhaka and across the country. Due to the security situation, there may be a delay in provision of routine consular services. Mostly spontaneous protests in Bangladesh were prompted by a court ruling that reintroduced the controversial job quota system. However, they quickly grew to articulate widespread displeasure against the government led by Sheikh Hasina — only half a year since the last national election. The wave of unrest over quotas for government jobs, saw the number of casualties still being tallied. The government put the official death toll by 29 July 2024 at 150, but according to the Bangladeshi media, at least 210 people, mostly young, lost their lives. Thousands more were injured. Hasina's ruling Awami League party claimed the transformation of the rallies into broader anti-government protests is an indicator that the protests have been appropriated by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party.
The movement, according to political scientist Tasneem Siddiqui, has an "unprecedented" ability to organize protests across the nation without centralized leadership. She also believes that it is fostering the emergence of a new generation of leadership. "With the same party holding power for 16 consecutive years, it has slowly evolved into a personalist regime. Everyone turns to the prime minister for solutions to any problem," Siddiqui told DW.
The movement is challenging this political culture, according to Siddiqui. Also, the rivalry between the Awami League and the BNP has not served the younger generation or improved the political landscape, according to the researcher. She notes that "the youth of the country do not like such politics anymore. If these two parties do not understand it, they will not be the leaders anymore." Siddiqui also thought that a strong third political party might be born out of this movement if the parties do not change themselves.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other leaders of the Awami League are insisting that the movement was effectively hijacked from the students by the opposition parties, namely Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP. The Awami League's Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim claimed that "malevolent" and "anti-liberation war" elements were involved in the violent episodes of the movement — referring to the independence war from Pakistan in 1971. "The unfolding of such an event was beyond our wildest imagination," he told DW. He also conceded to the government's shortcomings. "We acknowledge a lack of coordination among us, and we understand that there was a gap in the leadership as well," he said. "We have a significant amount of work ahead of us," Nasim added, while emphasizing that any future policies would be determined by deliberations inside the ruling party.
Ali Riaz, a Bangladesh expert and professor at Illinois State University in the US, believed that the impact of the protests on the ruling party was evident. "The government has attempted to foster a facade of democracy through some so-called elections. That era has ended. This government, which lacked moral justification in the past, is now left with no option but to resort to force". Ali Riaz believed that the government "has crossed all limits" through the "politics of repression." "What I understand from the people's reaction, the moral legitimacy of the government has also ended with this movement," he said. "Despite [the government] being somewhat successful in suppressing the movement by force," Riaz said, "the movement will not be over."
As the protests escalated across the country, internet and mobile networks were shut down to prevent communication among the demontrators. The government deployed the police, the military and the border guard paramilitaries to quell the unrest. Additionally, some protesters reported being attacked by the members of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party, Awami League. Some restrictions had since been eased, although social media platforms and educational institutions remain closed.
The massive anti-government protests in Bangladesh had their roots in student-led rallies that began in mid-July, during which demonstrators voiced opposition to a high court decision to reinstate quotas for government jobs after they had been abolished in 2018 following massive student protests. Under the quota system, more than half of civil service jobs were reserved for specific groups. For example, 30% of government jobs were set aside for family members of veterans who fought in the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
In response to the public anger, on July 21 the Supreme Court cut the quotas, advising that 93% of all appointments should be based on merit with immediate effect, with 5% going to descendants of freedom fighters, and 2% to people from ethnic minorities or with disabilities. The government accepted the advice of the court, but this failed to mollify protesters, who continued to stage wider anti-government demonstrations calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down, a demand with which she has now seemingly complied.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country's largest opposition party, expressed "surprise" at the emergence of this movement. Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kazal, a member of the party's central committee, said that the protests had unmasked the profound public scepticism towards the ruling Awami League, which has ruled the country for 16 years. "I think the government will do a lot of calculations now. They have to come out of the mindset that they have a license to do whatever they wanted for next five years," Kazal told DW. The Awami League won the 2008 election conducted under the military-backed caretaker government. It has since won three more elections, in 2014, 2018 and most recently in 2024. However, all three national elections were marred by allegations of vote rigging and boycotts from the opposition.
The ruling party had weathered protests before and did not iniutially seem to be humbled by the latest student movement. The state response was harsh — in the capital Dhaka alone, over 200,000 individuals have been implicated in at least 200 cases for their alleged participation in violence. Nationwide, thousands have been apprehended, including a reported minimum of 253 students within a 12-day period, as per Bangladeshi media. The protesters called for authorities to be held accountable for those killed during the protests, the number of which is estimated to be in the hundreds.
In confirming Hasina's resignation, Bangladesh's army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman added that authorities would "punish" those responsible for protest deaths. "The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed, it is time to stop the violence," he said in a televised speech. Going back to business as usual might not be easy, however. There have been allegations that several coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Students' Movement were tortured and taken to the Detective Branch (DB) office of the Bangladeshi police, where they were coerced into declaring the withdrawal of the movement.
The streets of the capital, Dhaka, and other major cities were filled with celebrations. Jubilant crowds waved flags, some dancing on top of a tank in the streets of Dhaka before hundreds broke through the gates of Hasina's official residence. Bangladesh's army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, said in a televised speech that the military would form an interim government. It was not immediately clear if he would lead it or who would join the caretaker administration.
Some student protesters said they won't accept any government without their representation. "Representatives of student protesters have to be part of the interim government. Otherwise, we will not accept it," Asif Mahmud, a student leader, told DW. He also underlined that they want to have a say not only on the structure of government but also on policies.
Z.I.Khan Panna, a senior lawyer and human rights activist, also expressed discontent with the army chief's statement. "We have not received any concrete plans from the army chief. What he said was a temporary solution," Panna told DW. "The people he spoke to over the formation of the interim government, what is their level of public support? I don't think people will accept that." However, a statement released by the military's public relations department said that the army chief would soon hold direct talks with representatives of protesting students and teachers.
The concept of a "caretaker government" is not new to Bangladesh. From 1990 to 2008, during general elections, the elected government ceded power to an interim, technocratic administration, which was tasked with holding elections in a free and fair manner. This system was scrapped in 2011. Some observers are now calling for a similar interim administration to take over until elections are held.
Meanwhile, a group of 21 prominent people, including rights activists and lawyers, called for the interim administration to take measures to address the causes of mass public dissatisfaction, which led to Hasina's ouster. In a statement, they said that the accumulated public anger over long-standing electoral fraud, widespread corruption, economic mismanagement and repression has now erupted into a mass movement. "Power should be transferred to a national or interim government through constitutional means or by amending the constitution if necessary, following discussions with the protesting students and political parties." The group also stressed that the military should not run the country and should instead hand over power to a civilian interim government and return to the barracks.
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