Bangladeshis cling to protest dreams a year after revolution

DHAKA – The memory of Bangladeshi police with shotguns twice blasting the young protester beside him still haunts Mr Hibzur Rahman Prince, one year after a revolution that has left Bangladesh mired in turmoil.

That killing, along with up to 1,400 others as Ms Sheikh Hasina tried to cling to power in 2024, overshadows Bangladesh as political parties jostle for power.

Mr Prince shuddered as he recalled how the student’s bleeding body collapsed at his feet.

“His body was lacerated,” said Mr Prince, who helped carry him to hospital.

Medics told him that “400 pellets were taken from his dead body”.

Protests began on July 1, 2024 with university students calling for reforms to a quota system for public sector jobs.

Initially, their demands seemed niche.

Many in the country of around 170 million people were worn down by the tough grind of economic woes.

Student ambitions to topple Ms Hasina’s iron-fisted rule seemed a fantasy, just months after she won her fourth consecutive election in a vote without genuine opposition.

One week into the demonstrations, she said the students were “wasting their time”.

‘Too many bodies’

But protests gathered pace.

Thousands launched daily blockades of roads and railways nationwide, with the gridlock bringing the demonstrations to wider attention.

A fuse was lit when police launched a deadly crackdown on July 16.

It became the catalyst for the airing of wider grievances.

Mr Prince, now 23, a business student in the capital Dhaka, said he witnessed killings when police sought to stem protests on July 18.

As well as carrying the student’s body, he helped several wounded protesters reach the hospital.

“I saw too many unidentified dead bodies in the morgue that day,” said Mr Prince, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffers flashbacks and mood swings.