This is not the first time that Army has 'intervened' in Bangladesh politics.
by Sanchita Bhattacharya
According to reports at the time of writing, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina is on her way to a third country after landing in Agartala, the capital city of the Indian state of Tripura, in the afternoon of August 5, 2024, following a military coup. The Bangladesh Army reportedly gave the Prime Minister a 45-minute ultimatum to step down.
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| [Photo: Amran Hossain/Daily Star] |
Subsequent to her resignation, Bangladesh Army Chief Waker-uz-Zaman, stated at a Press Conference,
We will step up an Interim Government in Bangladesh. We will discuss it with President of Bangladesh, [Mohammed Shahabuddin]. There will be fair trial of all injustice and oppression. Please have faith in the Army. Army won’t disappoint people of Bangladesh. Cooperate with us. Please stop all violence and cooperate with Army for a better future. Insha’Allah let us all work together for a better future. All leaders of major political parties had a discussion with us.
On August 4, countrywide protest intensified, and in that single day around 94 people were killed, including 14 Police officers. Of them, as many as 13 were killed in Sirajganj’s Enayetpur Police Station, and one in Comilla’s Elliotganj. The protests witnessed the participation of a large number of unidentified elements, including activists of the right-wing Islami Shashontantra Andolon, who erected barricades on multiple major highways and within the capital city. The violent protestors on the street were calling for Hasina to step down.
On August 5, 2024, thousands of protesters reportedly flooded into the Prime Minister’s official residence in Dhaka, after her departure. Visuals of protesters vandalising a statue of the founding father of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka were also seen on media. Even as protesters began their “Long March to Dhaka”, the Army chief was holding talks with leaders of various political parties, including the ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as well as other stakeholders, at the Army Headquarters in Dhaka’s cantonment area.
The fresh protests of August 4 were the culmination of weeks of violent demonstrations over a ‘job quota system’, which so far had resulted in the killing of 300 people, including the 94 on August 4. Since July 2024, the students had been demanding the abolition of quotas in government jobs, after the July 21, 2024, Supreme Court ruling (which was initially scheduled for August 7), curtailed the quota from 30 per cent to five per cent, for families of freedom fighters, with 93 per cent of positions now to be filled on merit. The remaining two per cent was to be allocated to ethnic minorities, transgender individuals, and people with disabilities. The Court had also urged student protesters to return to their classes.
Meanwhile, on July 31, the erstwhile Hasina government announced a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS). The ban was confirmed through a gazette notification issued by the Public Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs on August 1. The ban of JeI-ICS according to the Second Schedule of the Act, came through an executive order under Section 18(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009. The notification read,
For the purposes of this Act, the government, on reasonable grounds that a person or an entity is involved in terrorist activities, may, by order, enlist the person in the schedule or proscribe the entity and enlist it in the schedule…The government possesses enough evidence that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its front organization Islami Chhatra Shibir were involved in recent killings, destructive and terrorist activities directly and through incitement.
The ban followed the violence surrounding the ‘quota reform movement’ as the erstwhile government suspected that the radical Islamist JeI-ICS had hijacked the protests, organising looting, violence and damage to public property.
The ban is suspected to have resulted in a further escalation, leading to the current political turmoil, creating the space for the Army to step in.
This is not the first time that Army has ‘intervened’ in Bangladesh politics. In 1975, just four years after Liberation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nation’s founding father, along with most of his family members, was assassinated in a military coup, orchestrated by junior army officers. This resulted in Major General Ziaur Rahman taking over power and declaring himself President. After the assassination of Ziaur Rehman in 1981, Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad led a bloodless coup in December 1983, seizing power. Ershad declared martial law, suspended the constitution, and consolidated his control over both military and civilian structures. His regime ended in 1990 following a popular uprising demanding the restoration of democracy.
Bangladesh’s chequered history, has been fraught with blood, vengeance and violence. The destruction of Mujibur Rehman’s statute is a symbolic expression of the current mood of the country, which has been dominated by the Liberation struggle and the ideals of a liberal democratic state. The re-emergence of the Army at the political forefront is ominous for the country’s fundamentals. While it is too early to project outcomes at the present stage, it is certain that a significant period of the retreat of democracy has been initiated, and the intensification of Islamist radical politics is likely.
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