Bangladesh: guide to a revolution

Adamah Media offers a unique insider’s analysis of how student activism led to the downfall of a repressive regime. Saira Rahman Khan and Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso explain.

Bangladesh is not new to student movements.

In 1952, university students led the public movement to demand the recognition of Bangla as a state language in the Bangla-speaking majority East Pakistan, as it was then, after the Pakistani government had tried to impose Urdu. 

In 1971, the Pakistan Army curbed the independence movement through its ‘Operation Searchlight’, which hunted down, disappeared, and killed university students. In 1990, student-led protests helped bring down the autocratic regime of H.M Ershad.

Since 2009, Bangladesh had been under increasing repression from Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic regime.

Hasina has remained in power through farcical elections for over 15 years. In August 2024, all this changed because of a student movement.

‘Quota system’

On 5 August 2024, Sheikh Hasina – the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the leader of the Awami League political party – fled the country on a helicopter, leaving most of her corrupt government behind to fend for themselves.

She fled not because of any army coup or civil war, but as a result of university students protesting against the country’s ‘quota system’, which reserved a fixed number of government jobs for the freedom fighters of the 1971 Liberation War.

The quota system was introduced by the Awami League government in 1972, then led by Hasina’s father.

By 2018, 56 percent of government jobs were blocked under various quotas: a bulk was reserved for the families of freedom fighters; women and those from underdeveloped districts received a tenth each; indigenous communities were allotted five percent; and persons with disabilities received one percent.

Between 1972 and 1976, only 20 percent of vacant government posts were filled based on merit, according to government data. This meant that 80 percent of such government jobs followed the quota system.

By 1985, 55 percent of Class I and II government posts were filled through the quota system: 30 percent for freedom fighters; 10 percent for women; 10 percent for underdeveloped districts; and five percent for ethnic minorities. Later on, physically disabled persons were allotted one percent.

In recent years, the total quota for such government posts stood at 56 percent. At one point, the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters were added to the list.

In densely-populated Bangladesh, unemployment rates remain alarmingly high, making these government jobs highly coveted.

 In 2018, the Awami League government scrapped the quota system after student protests demanded its decrease to only 10 percent. At that time, Hasina declared that there would be no quota system and that all government jobs would be based on the results of the Bangladesh Civil Service exam.

The Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification cancelling the following various quotas for the direct recruitment of 9th to 13th grade public service holders, including the 30 per cent one for freedom fighters.The recruitment system, according to the Ministry, would be based on a merit list. This was made official through a gazette notification dated 4 October 2018.

Court battles

But not surprisingly, there were challenges to the gazette notification. Seven people – including Ahidul Islam Tushar, President of the Central Command Council of the Children and Grandchildren of Freedom Fighters – filed a writ petition against it in the High Court.

The petitioners argued that the removal of the 30 percent quota for the fighters – which was abolished for the 9th to 13th grades and placed in the 14th to 20th grades (i.e. lower paying jobs) – insults war heroes and their families. And sure enough on 5 June 2024, a High Court ruling declared the October 2018 notification illegal. Four days later an appeal court confirmed this, thereby reinstating the quota for freedom fighters.

Murmurs of outrage rippled across university campuses. Soon after, protests took over lecture halls, classrooms, and then the streets.

To pacify students, the State sought to cancel the High Court verdict.

On 21 July 2024, faced with the pressure of the anti-quota student movement, the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas. Dismissing a lower court order, the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division directed that 93 percent of government jobs should be merit-based.

Violence

At one point, the government did have the authority to make changes to the quota system as per the High Court’s verdict. However, it did not do so. The Prime Minister then chose to carry out inflammatory law enforcement actions and speeches against student protestors. The student-led nationwide protests spiralled into clashes. Subsequently, some protest organisers declared that the protests would continue.

The protests began on 1 July 2024 with the participation of students from various public universities.

The movement escalated on 6 July when students from Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University blocked the Dhaka-Tangail Bangabandhu Bridge highway. On 7 July, protestors carried out the ‘Bangla Blockade’, a nationwide blockade programme wherein students across the country boycotted classes and exams and blocked major highways and roads in front of educational institutions.

The student protestors stated that they did not want to abolish the quota system for the disadvantaged and challenged. Instead, they demanded the removal of quotas for freedom fighters, since such a system was being used to favour supporters of the autocratic Awami League regime. In addition, many freedom fighter certificates had been found to be forgeries. 

On 14 July during a press conference at the Prime Minister’s residence, when asked about the student protests, Hasina said, “If the grandchildren of freedom fighters do not receive (quota) benefits, who would get it? The grandchildren of razakars?” 

This statement stirred anger among student protestors, their parents, and the rest of Bangladesh as razakar is considered an extreme insult, denoting a Pakistani army ‘collaborator’ back in 1971. A few days later, the Prime Minister tried to backtrack her statement, denying that she called the student protestors razakars. Hasina claimed that the students were merely insulting themselves.

On 15 July, Dhaka University students, armed with only placards and flags, held a peaceful protest calling for quota reforms. They were then attacked by individuals carrying rods, sticks, clubs, and even revolvers.

Within hours, similar incidents of violence were observed across Bangladesh. Such attacks were coordinated by members of the Bangladesh Chatra League and Jubo League, which are affiliated with the ruling Awami League party. These groups are known to be armed and extremely violent. The attackers were identified through videos. It was also documented how the police were assisting the attackers.

On 16 July, the police used excessive force – through tear gas and batons – against protesters in front of Begum Rokeya University in the north-western city of Rangpur, where students had gathered, led by the protest coordinator Abu Sayed among others.

Deaths

The death of Abu Sayed added fuel to the fire burning in the students’ hearts.

Abu Sayed, a student at the Rangpur’s Begum Rokeya University, stood his ground as the police closed in. He spread his arms wide open in a moment of defiance. In an intentional and unjustifiable attack, the police fired directly at his chest. At least two police officers discharged 12-gauge shotguns directly towards him from across the street – a distance of merely 15 metres.

Sayed clutched his chest on impact as officers fired at least two more times using birdshot, an ammunition that is designed for hunting, inherently inaccurate and thus unlawful for use in the policing of protests. Sayed had posed no apparent physical threat to the police.

Sayed’s death certificate states that he was ‘brought dead’ to the hospital. He was only 25 years old.

By 8 July, 32 deaths were reported as the authorities continued to attack protestors. On 19 July, 75 deaths were recorded, the highest number reported in a single day.

The government then proposed a discussion but protestors rejected it in the face of a mounting death toll.

Aside from students, journalists and bystanders were also assaulted and killed during the violent crackdown on peaceful protests.

Between 16 July and 11 August, more than 600 people were killed, of which 32 were children, according to a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published in August.

Law enforcement reportedly deployed armoured vehicles, helicopters and searchlights to literally hunt down students.

Suppression

On 18 July 2024, the entire country went offline after the government imposed a communication blackout, leaving the rest of the world guessing as to what was really happening in Bangladesh.

This internet shutdown was a reckless step during a week of escalating violence and State suppression of human rights – a time when access to reliable information is critical.

The notorious Rapid Action Battalion, the Border Guard Bangladesh, and the army were deployed across the country. This was followed by a ‘shoot at sight’ curfew.

Security forces and the police unlawfully used 12-gauge shotguns loaded with birdshot, 37/38mm grenade launchers, AK-pattern assault rifles, Chinese type 56-1 assault rifles, and tear gas against protesters as verified by Amnesty International.

Five days later, internet restrictions were partially lifted.

In less than 10 days, more than 200 people had been killed and thousands more injured.

According to media reports, at least 2,500 people had been arbitrarily arrested. And around 61,000 protesters were accused in various cases.

The authorities subjected journalists to violence and disrupted their efforts freely and safely to do their jobs. The government also issued a blanket ban on protests, further restricting people’s freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.

Then suddenly, much to everyone’s surprise, on 5 August Sheikh Hasina fled the country.

There is no doubt that the student protestors of today led the way for Bangladesh as they did in the 1952 language movement and the 1971 call for independence.

The rest of the population seized the wave of dissent and rode it with the collected grievances accumulated in the past 15 years of human rights violations.

Catalyst for change

Ultimately, the ‘anti-quota movement’ acted as a catalyst to make people from all walks of life take to the streets to demand the demise of an autocratic regime.

All these brave student protestors – detained or extrajudicially killed – have parents and guardians who were witnessing the violence and injustice inflicted on their children.

Most of these student protestors grew up under the Awami League regime’s 15-year repressive rule. Supporting these young protestors were the older generations who are equally suffering.

Beyond the quota system, citizens are also highlighting the following concerns: the use of repressive laws to gag freedom of expression; the arrest of anyone criticising the Prime Minister, ministers, and leaders of the Awami League; the widespread and uncontrollable corruption in the country; the rising cost of living; the lack of free and fair elections since 2014, including local and municipal elections; the politicization of the judiciary, Anti Corruption Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Election Commission; the use of law enforcement to commit extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, and torture; the inability of human rights victims and their families to access justice; the killing, jailing, and harassment of human rights defenders (HRDs), civil society, and journalists; the politicization of organisations of engineers, doctors, lawyers resulting in violence, harassment, and promotions based on party affiliation rather than qualifications and professionalism; the rampant acts of violence against women; and the crimes committed by the Bangladesh Chatra League and other Awami League branches.

Over the last 15 years, HRDs and civil society groups have failed to make any lasting impact not only because of the government’s restrictions of freedom of expression, but also because of the very fact that Bangladesh civil society is very much divided.

Value of international solidarity

The gross and systematic human rights abuses in Bangladesh – which reached its peak from 1 July until the Prime Minister’s departure – necessitated international solidarity. 

It was then that Odhikar sought concrete support from the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA). Odhikar is a Bangladesh-based human rights organisation and member of FORUM-ASIA, a regional network of 87 organisations across 23 countries working on issues of human rights, fundamental freedoms, civic space, and sustainable development in Asia and beyond through research, advocacy, capacity development, and solidarity actions. 

FORUM-ASIA did its best to collaborate with other actors in organising virtual meetings for joint solidarity actions, issuing statements and joint letters to UN member States, and requesting the latter to urgently respond to the situation of Bangladesh.

In the first week of August, FORUM-ASIA was supposed to hold a training on UN advocacy for its member organisations from Bangladesh. However, due to the intensity of the protests and indiscriminate killings, the training was cancelled. 

Instead of this, FORUM-ASIA and its members in Bangladesh will now send three HRDs to the upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council to be held in September 2024 in order to amplify their voices as they tell the world of the gross and systematic human rights violations happening in their country.

Never again

The departure of the previous government was a Pyrrhic victory.

With the massacre, imprisonment, torture, and enforced disappearance of the country’s children and youth – paired with an economy on the brink of collapse and a population deeply traumatized by bloodshed – the new interim government brings with it a heavy responsibility of ensuring that justice and accountability can be realised in Bangladesh in a foreseeable future. 

The role of the international community in forging concrete solidarity in a devastated country is crucial to ensure non-recurrence and to learn the lessons of history.

With the strength of Bangladesh civil society organisations and the much-needed solidarity of their international counterparts, the years of despotism in this country need never be repeated. Never again.

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