Aaisha Sabir
When Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, Dhaka’s streets filled with ordinary young people, students mostly, but also workers and families. These were people who, after weeks of protesting against Hasina’s authoritarian rule, did not want just one political party to replace another. They didn’t want a new leader doing the same old things. They had stopped accepting corrupt governance. They wanted something entirely different. What they wanted was something more fundamental: the freedom to speak without fear, jobs based on merit and talent rather than a reserved quota system, and a government that could actually be held accountable.
Eighteen months later, in April this year, I returned to Dhaka to look for those youngsters who had brought down the Hasina regime. I tracked down the students who had organized the protests, who faced police bullets, lathi (baton) charges, and tear gas.
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