Sheikh Hasina – the political leader – once helped rescue Bangladesh from military rule but her long rule came to a sudden end today (Monday, August 05) as protesters stormed her palace in Dhaka.
During her 15 years in charge, the country saw an economic revival, but she also imposed human rights penalties on her security forces and arrested many political opponents. University students organized protests against public service employment quotas in July, but the demonstrations quickly became violent and included calls for her resignation.
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International condemnation also followed last month’s attacks on protesters by police and student organizations supporting the administration. The opposition boycotted the January referendum that the 76-year-old dictator Sheikh Hasina won for a fifth term as prime minister, claiming it was neither fair nor free.
Opposition activists were killed, among many other rights violations, her regime was accused of. As the daughter of a rebel who brought Bangladesh to its independence, Hasina oversaw rapid economic expansion in a nation that US politician Henry Kissinger had previously dismissed as an unredeemable “basket case”. Government statistics indicate that over 18 million young Bangladeshis lack employment, despite Sheikh Hasina’s pledge last year to transform the whole country into a “prosperous and developed country”.
