“One, two, three, 4, Sheikh Hasina is a dictator!”
The phrases had change into a rallying cry for younger Bangladeshis in current weeks – and on Monday their fury ended the prime minister’s 15-year reign.
The 76-year-old Ms Hasina had dominated the South Asian nation of 170 million with an iron fist since 2009 – only a month in the past, protests demanding her resignation would have been unthinkable.
However by Monday morning, she was caught in a lethal stalemate. It had been a number of days for the reason that high courtroom scrapped the job quotas that initially sparked the protests in early July. However the agitation continued, morphing into an anti-government motion that needed her out of energy.
What lastly tipped the scales was the ferocity of the clashes between the protesters and police on Sunday. Practically 300 persons are estimated have died within the violence thus far however Sunday alone noticed no less than 90 individuals, together with 13 cops, killed – the worst single-day casualty in protests in Bangladesh’s current historical past.
Critics referred to as it a “carnage”, whilst Ms Hasina stood her floor.
Bangladesh PM resigns and flees country: Follow live
And but, tens of hundreds took to the streets on Monday, lots of them marching in direction of the capital Dhaka, in defiance of a nationwide curfew.
Bangladeshis, it appeared, now not feared bullets. What had been a political motion was now a mass rebellion.
Ms Hasina’s choice was additionally hastened by the army, which might have put stress on her to step down. The military, which has dominated Bangladesh previously and remains to be vastly revered, has an outsized affect over the nation’s politics.
The violence from the weekend in addition to the prospect of going through recent rounds of huge protests would have made the army institution re-think its choices.
Junior officers had already raised considerations about being requested to fireside on civilians in a gathering with the army chief, Common Waker-Uz-Zaman, on Friday.
What lies forward is much less clear however Common Waker-Uz-Zaman is in talks with “varied stakeholders”, together with opposition events and civil society teams to seek out an “interim” resolution, a high-level supply conversant in the matter tells the BBC.
It’s no shock that Ms Hasina has fled to India. It is unclear what counsel she acquired from throughout the border however Bangladesh’s large neighbour has been an important ally of hers all through.
It’s partly why, as her recognition diminished, sturdy sentiment in opposition to India grew inside Bangladesh.
Delhi at all times seen its foothold in Bangladesh as key to the safety of the seven landlocked states in India’s north-east, all of which share a border with Bangladesh. Ms Hasina has given transit rights to India to verify items from its mainland make it to these states.
She additionally clamped down on anti-India militant teams based mostly in Bangladesh, a key difficulty in India.
However in current weeks, Delhi confronted a dilemma – by backing its unpopular ally, it risked alienating a mass motion and damaging its long-term relationship with Bangladesh. Ms Hasina’s resignation has solved that drawback.
The daughter of Bangladesh’s founding president, Sheikh Hasina had been the world’s longest-serving feminine head of presidency.
Her father was assassinated with many of the household in a army coup in 1975 – solely Ms Hasina and her youthful sister survived as they had been travelling overseas on the time.
After residing in exile in India, she returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and joined palms with different political events to steer a preferred rebellion for democracy that made her a nationwide icon.
Ms Hasina was first elected to energy in 1996 however later misplaced to her rival Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Social gathering (BNP) in 2001.
She got here again to energy in 2009 in polls held below a caretaker authorities.
Her time in energy was rife with accusations of pressured disappearances, extra-judicial killings, and the crushing of opposition figures and her critics – she denied the fees, and her authorities usually accused the principle opposition events of fuelling protests.
In current weeks too, Ms Hasina and her get together – the Awami League – blamed their political opponents for the unrest that gripped the nation.
However this time, the anger was louder than ever earlier than. It was actually essentially the most critical problem Ms Hasina had confronted since taking workplace after a contentious election win in January.
For weeks, she had refused to resign, even calling the protesters “terrorists” at one level.
However the realisation that the pressure of the safety institution could not preserve individuals off the steets doesn’t augur effectively for any chief – least of all an embattled one.
