Atifa Anjuman
In 2024, Bangladesh witnessed a significant student-led movement known as the ‘Anti-Discrimination Students Movement’; which played a pivotal role in the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The movement began as a protest in 15 July as students of Dhaka University were sitting with placards and flags peacefully in response to the reinstatement of a quota allocation for government jobs in Bangladesh. They demanded an end to a controversial government job quota system that reserved 30% of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971 which many students viewed as discriminatory amid high youth unemployment. The law enforcement agencies, including the Police, RAB, and BGB, as well as members of the ruling party’s student, youth and volunteer wings, were involved in violent confrontations with the protesters. These clashes resulted in numerous deaths, including among protesters, law enforcement personnel, and children. Despite the significant loss of life, Sheikh Hasina’s government denied to take any responsibility, attributing the violence to other factors.
The protests, initially centered an opposing the quota system, quickly spread nationwide, driven by broader public concerns about the government’s management of the economy, allegations of corruption, human rights issues, and a perceived lack of democratic channels for change. The steady escalation of tension, mobilization and violence belies the protest movement’s narrowly stated goal. The quota issue was the tip of the iceberg of economic and political discontent that lies underneath the surface.
The movement was not the novel one. This quota system was cancelled by the government in response to student protest in April 2018. Following the filling of a written petition by a group of relatives of the war veterans, the High Court of Bangladesh reinstated the 30% quota system at the end of June which triggered the resurgence of the quota reform movement. This decision led to wide spread dissatisfaction, particularly among students who felt that the quota system limited merit based opportunities. The government appealed the high court’s decision, but the prospect of the quota systems return drove students to the street. The initial protests in early July were small but persistent and met with occasional violence from pro-government Awami League supporters, namely its student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League at University of Dhaka. The confrontation escalated when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina equated the protesters to “Razakars”. In response, the protesters adopted the term as their own, declaiming, “We are razakars” and calling the prime minister an autocrat. Amidst the protests, curfew and internet shut down, on 21 July, Bangladesh Supreme Court ruled that the veteran’s quota must be cut to 5%, with 93% of jobs to be allocated on merit. The remaining 2% will be set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people. The government accepted the decision, but the protests have continued in pockets, with protesters demanding justice and accountability for the violence. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who won a fifth term as prime minister in January 2024 after a vote without genuine opposition, says the students are ‘wasting their time’. Hasina’s administration has blamed the opposition parties and student wings for instigating the violence. The violent clashes took place across more than a dozen districts other than Dhaka, including Chattogram, Rangpur, Bogura, Sirajganj, Narayanganj, Magura and Kishoreganj, where protesters backed by the main opposition party clashed with Police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.
On 15 July 2024, students of Dhaka University were protested peacefully against the quota allocation for government jobs in Bangladesh. Suddenly, they attacked by individuals armed by rods, sticks and clubs with a few even brandishing revolvers. Within hours, a pattern emerged across the country with similar attacks coordinated by people believed to be members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a group affiliated with the ruling Awami League.
By the afternoon of 16 July 2024, police fired tear gas and charged with batons drawn at protesters in front of Begum Rokeya University of Rangpur where students had gathered, led by the protest coordinator Abu Sayed among others. Twenty five years old Abu Sayed, the son of a farmer, was a successful scholarship student of English in Begum Rokeya University. He dreamed of one day securing a government job that would guarantee economic stability, and perhaps propel his family into upward mobility. But when the government reinstated a quota system, his dreams were dashed. Abu Sayed knew that there are 18 million unemployed young people in Bangladesh at the moment, and he did not want to be part of this damning statistic once he graduated. So he became a lead coordinator in a countrywide movement to reform the quota system. Abu Sayed stood his ground as the police closed in; he spread his arms wide open, in a moment of defiance. In a seemingly intentional and unjustifiable attack, the police fired rubber bullet directly at his chest across the street-a distance of merely 15 meters. The video of this blatant extrajudicial brutal killing was shared like wildfire online, igniting a fire that brought hundreds and thousands across the country into the streets. Educators, lawyers, parents and rickshaw pullers joined them in solidarity, in anger and mourning over the death of Abu Sayed.
Shaykh Ashabul Yamin was a student of the computer science department at the MIST in Mirpur. On 16 July 2024, amidst the escalating tensions during the quota reform protests, Yamin went to observe the demonstrations near the Savar bus stand after offering prayers in his local neighborhood of Bank Town, Savar. Around noon, a violent confrontation broke out between the protesters and the police at the Pakija bus stand. During the clash, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and Ashabul was struck by several pellets in his chest. He was taken to Enam Medical College Hospital, Savar but was pronounced dead upon arrival at around 3 pm. Yamin’s death became a symbol of the violence that marked the protests. His name was invoked in subsequent demonstrations as a reminder of the conflict. Subsequently, a video emerged on social media showing two armed police members forcibly removing him from the top of an armored personnel carrier to the side of the vehicle, where he was shot at close range.
On 18 July 2024, Mir Mugdho, a student of BUP, set out to distribute food and water to the protestors. His twin brother Snigdho was planning to come with him, but Mugdho asked him not to. In a video recorded fifteen minutes before his death, he is seen distributing water bottles and boxes of biscuits to protestors. Around 5 pm, when he was at the side of the road, he was shot at Azampur intersection in Uttara. The bullet entered through his forehead and exited through the right side of his head. His body was taken to Uttara Crescent Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
On 19 July 2024, Riya Gope, a six year old girl from Noyamati area in Narayanganj, was struck by a stray bullet while playing on the roof of her family’s home during clashes related to the quota reform protests. The bullet hit her in the back of the head as her father attempted to bring her inside. She was taken to a local hospital first and later transferred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where she underwent surgery. After five days of treatment, Riya succumbed to her injuries. Riya was among the youngest and one of four individuals injured in the clashes that day in Narayanganj who later died.
The violence inflicted on it had drastically changed the student movement. The students now wanted to achieve much more than merely fixing the quota system. They wanted meaningful, systemic change. They wanted a new government, and they wanted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.
In these volatile situations, Prime Minister Hasina offered to talk with student leaders, but the coordinators refused and announced a one point demand for her resignation. Protesters chant “down with the dictator” and torch the headquarters of state broadcaster BTV and dozens of other government buildings. The government proposed a discussion, but the protesters rejected it in the face of a mounting death toll. Hasina repeated her pledges to investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. As the renewed violence raged, Sheikh Hasina said the protesters who engaged in ‘sabotage’ and destruction were no longer students but criminals, and she said the people should deal with them with iron hands. The ruling Awami League Party said the demand for Hasina’s resignation showed that protests have been taken over by the main opposition BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami party. Protesters called for a “non-cooperation” effort, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to show up for work.
The government orders the nationwide closure of school, college and university. Courts were to be closed indefinitely. Mobile internet service was cut off, and Facebook and messaging apps, including WhatApp, Viber were inaccessible. The entire country went offline when the government imposed a communication blackout, leaving the world guess what was happening. Five days later the internet shutdown was partially lifted in some parts of the country on the 23 July. Shutting down the internet 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 authorities are conducting arbitrary arrests and detentions of protesters, activists and members of the public. The authorities have also subjected journalists to violence and disrupted their efforts to report freely and safely. Authorities also issued a blanket shutdown ban on protests further restricting the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Blanket shutdowns impact people’s safety, security, mobility and livelihoods while creating instability and panic, further undermining their trust in the authorities.
Authorities resorted to a range of tactics to punitively respond to the student protesters, including the unlawful use of lethal and less lethal weapons in the policing of protests in Bangladesh, leading to hundreds of death. Security forces, including RAB, BGB, as well as the Police, have unlawfully used both lethal and less lethal weapons and tear gas against protesters. The Army was deployed across the country and a “shoot at sight” curfew was imposed. The protests rapidly escalated into a nationwide uprising, with students organizing mass demonstrations and civil disobedience.
The government declared a three day general holiday from 5 August, during which banks and many business were closed. Despite these measures, the ‘Anti-Discrimination Students Movement’ announced plans of Long March to Dhaka campaign on 5 August, prompting a further crackdown. Despite the government’s attempts to suppress the movement, the protests gained momentum, leading to get out an autocrat who rules the country with an iron fist for 15 years to escape without looking back after five short weeks.
On 5 August 2024, amid escalating protests, violence, thousands of death and more than twenty thousands of injured, Sheikh Hasina recognizing that she would not be able to break the resolve of the student movement- a movement that represents the very future of Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina resigned and hastily fled the country in a military aircraft. An interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, was established, with Army and students taking active roles in restoring law and order situation and initiating political reforms. The movement has been characterized as a significant shift in Bangladesh’s political landscape, with students emerging as a formidable force advocating for democratic reforms and social justice. Their actions have not only led to a change in leadership but have also initiated discussion on the need for comprehensive political and constitutional changes in the country.
The success of this movement is the strongest proof that Bangladeshi people are no longer content with economic progress at the cost of human rights, free speech and democracy. Indeed, for 15 years, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina boasted at every chance she got about how she had slashed poverty in half in the least developing country but her attempt to present human rights abuses, oppression, corruption and inequality as an inevitable price that needs to be paid for economic prosperity was an attempt that massively backfired. In the last decade or so, as a new generation ‘Gen Z’ came of age in what is repeatedly described as a “prosperous country that is on the rise”, something started to change in the psyche of the nation.
At first glance, it seems the students miraculously toppled all powerful government in five short weeks, but this revolution was years in the making. Those who participated in the student protests in 2024, those who gave up their lives – grew up watching the country prosper as the government became more and more authoritarian and abusive. They wanted to free Bangladesh from its suffocating government and help it reach its true potential- as a democratic nation that respects and protects the rights of all its citizens. After the five weeks of blood shade, pain, fear and heartache, they achieved their dream. Young Bangladeshis are now in charge of the country and perhaps for the first time in their lives, they have reason to be hopeful for the future.
This revolution is a clear message from youths to those who have long held on to and abused power, not only in Bangladesh, but across the world. Your time is over. Members of a new generation are not willing to give up their rights, and ready to fight for justice at great personal cost. Change is now inevitable. We must all get on board, or get off the train.
The writer is a senior broadcast journalist of Independent Television, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
