Facing Mass Protests, Bangladesh Leader Quits, Setting Up Power Struggle
They came prepared for violence. A day after about 100 people were killed in antigovernment protests, hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, defying a curfew imposed by the government and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
They got their wish. After 15 years of increasingly autocratic rule during which she crushed the opposition and brought the armed forces and the judiciary under her control, Ms. Hasina bowed to pressure and, according to the military, quit her post and fled the country in a helicopter.
The downfall of her government, in a country known for its messy and sometimes bloody politics, plunged the country into lawless uncertainty and all but guaranteed that there will be a fresh battle for power between leaders of her political party, the Awami League, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, its main opposition.
It remained unclear what role the military, which has seized power in the past, will play — or whether it had a hand in persuading Ms. Hasina to leave. On Monday afternoon, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, the Bangladesh Army chief of staff, announced her departure and said he would request the formation of an interim government.
Neither Ms. Hasina, 76, nor the Awami League made any public comment on the head-spinning turn of events that few people had predicted.
The recent unrest began with student-led demonstrations against a quota system for government jobs, but they quickly broadened into protests against a government seen as increasingly authoritarian, and were met with a brutal crackdown. Thousands were arrested and scores were killed.
Student leaders had initially called for a march on Tuesday, but decided to accelerate that timetable, moving the event to Monday after around 100 people died in clashes on Sunday. In a video message, Asif Mahmud, a protest leader, said: “The time has come for the final battle. Come to Dhaka to be a part of history.”
The Hasina government declared a curfew on Sunday evening. However, protesters defied the curfew on Monday morning despite police barricades and heavy security. Later that day, the security forces made little effort to enforce the curfew.
In Dhaka, what could have been a day of street battles turned into a street party, as many jubilant protesters, shaking their fists in celebration, marched through the city center. Thronging alleys and streets, demonstrators waved national flags and bandannas, booed Ms. Hasina and called her a dictator, and then cheered the announcement that she was gone.
“It is the victory of the students, the victory of the people. After a long time, we are happy to be out of a dictatorial regime,” said one demonstrator, Towfiqur Rahman, who said he was preparing for an entrance exam for a government job. “You can suppress anger for a while, but it erupts. Today is proof of that.”
The celebrations soon descended into vandalism and rioting. Unchecked, the crowd stormed Ms. Hasina’s official residence and made off with its contents, including furniture, house plants and even the former prime minister’s chickens. A protester put up a Facebook post posing with what he said was “Hasina’s sari.”
Monsur Ali, a garment worker, said he was among the thousands who entered the prime minister’s residence, where he took a plate. “We went there out of anger,” he said. “Nothing is left there.”
Protesters attacked the offices and homes of other members of the Awami League. They stormed the Parliament building, setting seats on fire. Amid swirls of smoke, demonstrators stood on tables and chairs, and ran across the main parliamentary floor.
They also set fire to the residence where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ms. Hasina’s father, who played a key role in the founding leader of Bangladesh, was assassinated in 1975.
Video footage showed rioters entering the home of Salman F. Rahman, Ms. Hasina’s financial adviser, where they looted artwork and household items and set vehicles on fire. “Take whatever you can. Take everything,” a woman is heard saying in the video. “You are doing great work. Very good, very good.”
One of the deadliest clashes between protesters and security forces occurred on Sunday, even as the government declared an indefinite curfew and shut down the internet.
On Monday morning, protest leaders rallied their supporters, calling for the end of Ms. Hasina’s rule. “There is freedom or freedom. There is no alternative to this for the students and citizens,” Hasnat Abdullah, one of the leaders, said in a post.
The decision to move the protest march to Monday in defiance of the curfew may have left Ms. Hasina unprepared to deal with the enormous throngs of protesters making their way toward her official residence, known as Ganabhaban.
The protests, which have become an outpouring of rage against Ms. Hasina, began more than a month ago when a Bangladeshi court reinstated a quota-based system for government jobs, many of which were reserved for descendants of those who fought for independence from Pakistan more than 50 years ago.
Despite the deadly crackdown of recent days, the protests kept growing, showing that fear of Ms. Hasina and her government was not enough to keep many people off the streets. Instead of backing down in the face of a new curfew and other restrictions, the protesters planned a march.
On Monday evening, leaders of the opposition and the country’s defense leaders met at the residence of Mohammed Shahabuddin, an Awami League supporter who holds the largely ceremonial post of president, to determine next steps.
After the meeting, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said that the current Parliament will be dissolved and the interim government will hold an election within three months.
Collectively, the leaders agreed to give the army the authority to stop any vandalism and civil disobedience. The group agreed to release Khaleda Zia, the chairman of the B.N.P. — the Awami League’s longtime opponent — from custody, along with thousands of people arrested in the recent protests.
The army announced that a new curfew would go into effect at midnight and lift early on Tuesday morning. Universities and educational institutions that had been closed since mid-July amid the unrest would open on Tuesday morning, according to a news release by the army.
Saif Hasnat and Shayeza Walid reported from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Anupreeta Das from New York. Mujib Mashal contributed reporting from New Delhi.
#Facing #Mass #Protests #Bangladesh #Leader #Quits #Setting #Power #Struggle