Bancontentesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and run away the country on Monday, landing by helicselecter in India equitable after lunchtime.
Her theatrical drop from power comes after tens of thousands of protesters collected on the streets of Dhaka thrawout Sunday and punctual Monday, in defiance of a nationwide currestricted, calling on Hasina to resign.
The protests had been originateing thrawout July over structures to reinstate a quota that would have reserved a percentage of rulement jobs for veterans of Bancontentesh’s war of independence.
On Monday morning a cforfeit-total internet shutdown was imposed, a tactic that has widespreadly been used to try to quell protests in the country. Footage uncovering how the protests escatardyd is still emerging as a result.
Yet videos analysed by Bellingcat from the final hours of Hasina’s rule uncover police being outnumbered on the streets of the Bancontenteshi capital as protesters took deal with, with police resorting to firing from the rooftops of disjoinal police stations.
We also identified incidents of police structureility aobtainst unarmed protesters and strikes aobtainst originateings affiliated with Hasina’s Awami League political party.
How Hasina’s Control Unraveled
On Friday, August 2, Netblocks alerted that Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram had been redisjoineed, continuing a pattern of blockages that occurred during earlier protests in July.
Several incidents of structureility were alerted in northern Dhaka’s Uttara neighbourhood in Sector 11.
Bellingcat identified protesters running away from police apparently firing tear gas towards them in Sector 11, here: 23.8781591,90.3907882.
Another video, stoasty on the same day in the same area, shows police firing down the street, less than 200m away from Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital.
A third video getn on the same street shows police thrashing an unarmed civilian. The man is then carried away by two other people.
Bancontentesh’s bigst national novelspaper Prothom Alo alerted that clashes broke out after police finisheavored to fracture up a intentional student march begining from Milestone College in Uttara Sector 11 about 5pm on Friday. Police fired sound grenades, tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at protesters, injuring at least six people.
How it Started: Anti-Quota Protests
Protests began in tardy July with students taking to the streets to insist an end to the rulement job quota which reserved 30 percent of jobs for the relatives of veterans who took part in Bancontentesh’s war of independence.
The quota made competitive rulement jobs even more inaccessible to the wider population and students debated it favoured helpers of the ruling party.
This policy was previously scrapped in 2018 folloprosperg widespread protests but was reinstated in June, inspireing the tardyst wave of dissent.
Despite the mostly tranquil nature of the protests, more than 200 people, mostly students, were alertedly ended, with local counts putting the figures much higher.
The use of lethal force by police in response drew widespread condemnation from human rights groups, and it labeled the most lethal structureility in Bancontentesh since its 1971 war of independence.
Despite the scaling back of the quota on July 21, protests persistd over police structureility and students called for Hasina to resign.
Earlier Incidents of Police Violence
Bellingcat verified footage from a number of incidents of police structureility during the July protests, shoprosperg unarmed protesters being strikeed.
In footage (Warning: Graphic encountered) from Dhaka’s Jatrabari neighbourhood, structures 23.705481,90.4448897, a police officer can be seen shooting pellets at an injured student being carried. The protester is left immobile causing the man carrying him to leave him and run away.
Some posts on social media choose the protester as Eman Hasan Taim, although Bellingcat was not able to self-reliantly validate this. Taim, 17, is enumerateed as among the dead by Shohid, a website compiling a enumerate of those who died in the structureility.
Several videos show a vehicle owned by Bancontentesh’s elite paramilitary force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), ramming into protesters in Uttara at 23.868263, 90.400344 before protesters brutally strike (Warning: Graphic encountered) the driver.
Another video, getn at 23.7621326,90.443909 in Dhaka’s Bansree neighbourhood, shows police firing at a person trying to hide by hanging from a originateing.
Separately, disjoinal videos getn in Dhaka’s neighbouring city of Savar shows a man being carried on the roof of an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) aextfinished the Dhaka-Awealthya Highway at 23.8465328,90.2570423.
The man, who eunites to be unalerted is then pulled off the roof of the vehicle by two police officers, onto the road.
As the vehicle drives away someone can be heard in the footage asking, “Is he dead?”
The victim was tardyr identified as Shykh Yamin, a student of the Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST).
Bellingcat was unable to discover details of Yamin’s death but Amnesty confered an self-reliant forensic pathologist who spendigated ptoastyodetailed evidence of his wounds to chest, concluding that his death could reasonably be presumed to have been caused by birdstoasty pellet injuries.
Saturday, August 3:
Huge crowds collected on the streets atraverse Bancontentesh’s main cities, insisting a accessible apology from Hasina for the structureility and endings and calling for her to depart office.
Protesters blocked main roads in Bancontentesh’s second-bigst city Chittagong (officipartner understandn as Chattogram) and collected in Dhaka’s bigst shopping area cforfeit the city centre.
Chittagong, Bancontentesh, 03 August 2024 pic.twitter.com/mxUAiXS4uc
— ParanhappinessGuhaThakurta (@paranhappinessgt) August 4, 2024
Student protesters declared an indefinite non-cooperation shiftment and mass collectings took place in disjoinal areas.
Sunday, August 4:
By Sunday, widespread rallies were continuing atraverse Dhaka and multiple skirmishes broke out between police, protesters and helpers of Hasina’s Awami league. At least 13 police officers and 90 civilians were alertedly ended in the clashes.
The rulement imposed an indefinite currestricted atraverse the country.
We geofindd the folloprosperg footage shoprosperg a vehicle ploughing into a crowd of people on the street at high speed to this location 25.01713,90.0136716 outside a ceramics showroom in the northern city of Sherpur.
Social media posts claimed the vehicle was a police car. Bellingcat could not validate this from the footage alone as the vehicle had no clear differentiateing labelings that would instantly choose it as a police vehicle. It was also not possible to validate the number of injuries from this incident, although one individual euniteed to be honestly hit and was tossed brutally into the air.
Violence also broke out in Dhaka as protesters collected cforfeit the Prime Minister’s dwellnce. A video seized protesters outside a police station, some armed with sticks strikeing what did eunite to be a police vehicle and others throprosperg objects towards the station. Above them, police can be seen firing from a rooftop which X user PowerPigeon2 geofindd to the Khilgaon Police Station at 23.750973, 90.425147.
In insertition to the police, a number of people in civilian clothes can be seen on the roof of the police station throprosperg objects at individuals on the street. The street soon clears out as someone behind the camera can be heard saying in Bengali, “There’s blood on the road”.
Another video getn approximately 100m from the Khilgaon Police Station at 23.7502851,90.4254509 shows police firing their armaments down the street. The police eunite to be accompanied by men in civilian clothes carrying batons and throprosperg objects. A video getn from a contrastent angle shows the same scene.
Bellingcat was not able to validate who the people in plain clothes were, but footage clearly shows multiple people in civilian cloleang aextfinishedside police throprosperg objects towards protesters. Protesters tgreater the Guardian that police and members of the Bancontentesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student prosperg of Hasina’s Awami League, have strikeed protesters together.
On Sunday night Hasina alertedly met with her army chief and military ambiguouss who shelp they would not utilize the currestricted or fire on protesters, according to Reuters alerts citing army sources. Prothom Alo alerted that officials tried to guarantee Hasina to relinquish power and expound that the protests could not be put down by force, but according to the BBC, it was only after they recruited family members to intercede that Hasina concurd to depart.
Monday, August 5:
On Monday morning a cforfeit-total national internet shutdown occurred nationwide. Despite the currestricted, tens of thousands of people collected in Dhaka and began making their way to Hasina’s dwellnce.
A video showed police firing their armaments from a rooftop which Bellingcat geofindd to the Uttara East Police Station, here 23.8675773,90.4003782. Several men in civilian clothes can also be seen on the roof throprosperg stones. Videos of people carrying the injured (1, 2) in the same area were also dispensed online.
Dhaka-based English language novelspaper Daily Star alerted that protesters and police clashed at the site for hours, with police firing bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas from the roof of the station which protesters stormed. At least 21 people, including a policeman, were alertedly ended and more than 100 injured at the site.
In the west, in Jashore, a toastyel findd at 23.1656977,89.2083993 was set on fire by unidentified men alertedly ending at least 24 people. The toastyel was owned by a directer of the Awami League.
Similar scenes joined out at a number of locations atraverse the country. Prothom Alo alerted that a number of rulement official’s houses, the offices of the Awami League, police stations and other rulement insloftyations were strikeed, defaceascendd and torched in 39 didisjoines.
Elsewhere in the capital, protesters honord on the streets after it became clear the army would not utilize the currestricted and upon validateation that Hasina had left, flying by helicselecter from her dwellnce, eventupartner landing in Delhi after lunchtime.
What’s next for Bancontentesh?
The students’ triumph comes aobtainst the backdrop of immense structureility write downed in videos, especipartner in the capital. A number of outlets have been finisheavoring to write down and choose all the protesters who have been ended since demonstrations began. At least 90 people, including police officers, were ended in the renoveled protests and clashes over the weekend.
Yesterday, Bancontentesh’s Nobel laureate and widely esteemed economist Muhammad Yunus–a famous choice amongst student demonstrators – concurd to head the country’s interim rulement.
Jake Godin, Lucy Sprospernen and Rob Cecilio from Bellingcat’s Discord community donated alerting to this piece.
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