DHAKA: After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to leave the nation due to widespread protests, there was both celebration and lingering resentment on the streets of Dhaka. However, many people were concerned about what would happen next.
Syed Tanveer Rahman, 30, is an activist in the movement that started as rallies against government employment quotas that went to persons perceived as Hasina loyalists, but evolved into large-scale protests against her rule. “We are free now — we have won!” Rahman exclaimed.
“Our goal was to improve the fairness of the government’s recruitment tests, but we ended up committing to reforming our entire system and making it more equitable for everyone,” Rahman stated.
Hasina was called a dictator by some of the younger demonstrators, who claimed that she was become more and more autocratic.
Poverty was a contributing factor in the large-scale protests. The economy was beset by rising inflation and expensive imports, so the government turned to the International Monetary Fund for assistance.
High school student Lamisa Janan remarked, “I can tell you I am feeling a tremendous joy of liberation—liberation from a harsh dictatorship.” She claimed that as soon as she learned that the government had fallen, she hurried from her house to join the throng.
Tuesday, one day after Hasina left, saw some resumption of normalcy in Dhaka, despite lighter traffic and the closure of only a few schools due to the violence.
But amid the happiness, there remained anger long after Hasina had left. Protesters used axes, hammers, and chisels to attack the head of a big statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, at a popular intersection.
She forced us to submit to her father’s image. Zafar Ahmed, a young man who participated in the devastation, stated, “Everywhere you see his statues, photos.” “Every statue will be destroyed,”
It’s time to reconstruct from the rubble.
Protesters set fire to Hasina’s residence during her tenure as opposition leader from 2001 to 2006 and the party chairperson’s office in Dhanmondi, an upscale neighborhood thought to be an Awami League stronghold.
They also set fire to Hasina’s father’s old home, the Bangabandhu Museum in Dhanmondi, where he was killed in 1975.
Concerns about how the situation would change in the upcoming days and months were expressed by many young people.
Jahanara Amin, a 35-year-old banker, expressed her disgust at the turmoil and thievery occurring at public institutions, saying that such behavior is not appropriate for celebration.
“Now is not the moment to rejoice in victory. To guarantee that the system functions better for everyone, especially young people, a long road lies ahead, according to Minhazul Islam, a researcher at the policy think tank Unnayan Shamunnay.
Parvez Alam, a writer and activist, stated that there was now an opportunity for a new Bangladesh to arise.
“For the past ten years or so, the youth of Bangladesh have been advocating for’repairing the state,’ based on fundamental values such as equality, human dignity, and social justice,” Alam stated.
“We have the chance to rebuild our state from the ground up thanks to the uprising in July,” he declared.
Recent graduate Adnan Aziz Chowdhury, an activist with the Bangladesh Student Union, demanded that the government give young people greater access to training and employment prospects.
“We should do away with the long-standing practices of nepotism and discrimination in hiring in both the public and private sectors,” he declared.
Others demanded greater freedom and transparency.
Farida Ali Khan, a young mother and homemaker, stated that “people of all religious creeds, lifestyles, and opinions should have space in Bangladesh—allowing the right to ask questions, make cartoons or satire and so on.”
“Dictatoriship is the only thing that ought to be excluded.”
