What started as a peaceful non-violent quota reform movement turned into a blood bath which eventually led to the fall of the authoritarian regime of Awami League (AL).
University students spearheaded the 2024 Bangladesh Quota reform movement which focused on restructuring discriminatory traditional and quota-based systems for government job recruitment. The protests began in June 2024 when the government decision following the 2018 Bangladesh quota reform movement was reversed by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. They reinstated a 30% quota in government jobs for descendants of freedom fighters, to the students this felt like they would have limited opportunity based on merit.
The protest initially began in Dhaka but quickly spread across the entire country due to the government’s aggressive handing. There was an overall growing public dissatisfaction against the oppressive Awami League for their violent response because they shut down all educational institutions to supress the protests. The Awami League deployed their student wings and other factions, who attacked the demonstrators with sharp weapons and firearms. They also deployed all their security forces (Police, RAB, Army, and others), who also used firearms against the demonstrators. The government also declared a shoot-at-sight curfew, blocked all social media platforms, and ordered a nationwide internet and mobile data shutdown.
The Awami League and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina kept on speaking against the protests saying that political opponents co-opted the protests and asked parents to keep their children home. They said they would strike back against the opposition with force. Currently, there’s been over 200 deaths, over 2,0000 injured, and over 10,000 arrests officially made. Unofficially, the death toll is over 1,000. The government also started mass surveillance efforts; they started checking people’s phones on the streets looking for messages, photos, and videos of the protests and the government crackdown.
Once the government started to identify protesters, security forces dressed in civil clothes began picking them up from their homes. The demonstrators then expanded their demands by asking for accountability for all the violence and death. At that point, more people started joining the protests. It wasn’t a student protest anymore, people from all kinds of backgrounds joined forces with one demand; Sheikh Hasina must resign!
Finally, in the beginning of August, Sheikh Hasina was willing to have a peaceful talk with the protestors. But it was already too late for her by then. The coordinators of the protest said they would not negotiate with the government after enduring all that violence. Another coordinator said, “There is no dialogue with bullets and terrorism.” On August 5, 2024, Sheikh Hasina resigned from her position and fled to India via helicopter. Later, the whole parliament and cabinet was dismantled and everyone in the ministry resigned. She fled because the security forces said they could not do anything anymore, the protests had gotten too big for them to stop.
Currently, Bangladesh has an interim government in place with Dr. Muhammad Yunus as the Chief Advisor. They have asked the traffic police and other forces to come back to work so that law and order could be restored to the country. In the meantime, Awami League affiliated leaders have either fled or been killed by opposition parties; their houses were looted and burned. Unfortunately, some other Awami League leaders were trying to create chaos in t through their people.
It is important to note that the alleged religious persecution of minorities after the toppling of the government is completely false. True, some were attacked, but they were affiliated with the Awami League affiliated. Some Awami League local leaders tried to instigate further attacks on minorities based o religious reasons to create some sort of chaos but in many places Muslims and people from other religions joined together to protect minorities and their holy places. Reported news about these attacks, especially in India via X formerly known as Twitter, was disinformation in an attempt to destabilize the country.