DHAKA, Bangladesh — Abdur Rahman Tarif was speaking to his sister Meherunnesa over the cellphone when the voice on the opposite finish of the decision all of the sudden fell silent.
In that second, Tarif knew one thing unhealthy had occurred. He rushed dwelling, dodging the alternate of fireplace between safety forces and protesters on the streets of Dhaka. When he lastly arrived, he found his dad and mom tending to his bleeding sister.
A stray bullet had hit Meherunnesa’s chest whereas she was standing beside the window of her room, Tarif stated. She was taken to a hospital the place medical doctors declared her useless.
Meherunnesa, 23, was killed on Aug. 5 final yr, the identical day Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was pressured to flee the nation in an enormous student-led rebellion, which ended her 15-year rule. For a lot of Bangladesh, Hasina’s ouster was a second of pleasure. Three days later, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over the nation as head of an interim authorities, promising to revive order and maintain a brand new election after vital reforms.
A yr on, Bangladesh continues to be reeling from that violence, and Hasina now faces trial for crimes towards humanity, in absentia as she is in exile in India. However regardless of the bloodshed and lives misplaced, many say the prospect for a greater Bangladesh with a liberal democracy, political tolerance and non secular and communal concord has remained a problem.
“The hope of the hundreds who braved deadly violence a yr in the past after they opposed Sheikh Hasina’s abusive rule to construct a rights-respecting democracy stays unfulfilled,” stated Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based human rights group.
Bangladesh’s anti-government motion exacted a heavy value. Tons of of individuals, largely college students, had been killed in violent protests. Indignant demonstrators torched police stations and authorities buildings. Political opponents typically clashed with one another, generally resulting in ugly killings.
Like many Bangladeshis, Tarif and his sister took half within the rebellion, hoping for a broader political change, significantly after when one among their cousins was shot and killed by safety forces.
“We couldn’t keep dwelling and needed Sheikh Hasina to go,” 20-year-old Tarif stated. “In the end we needed a rustic with none discrimination and injustice.”
As we speak, his hopes lie shattered. “We needed a change, however I’m annoyed now,” he stated.
After taking the reins, the Yunus-led administration shaped 11 reform commissions, together with a nationwide consensus fee that’s working with main political events for future governments and the electoral course of.
Bickering political events have failed to succeed in a consensus on a timetable and course of for elections. Mob violence, political assaults on rival events and teams, and hostility to ladies’s rights and weak minority teams by spiritual hardliners have all surged.
Among the concern and repression that marked Hasina’s rule, and abuses comparable to widespread enforced disappearances, seem to have ended, rights teams say. Nonetheless, they accuse the brand new authorities of utilizing arbitrary detention to focus on perceived political opponents, particularly Hasina’s supporters, lots of whom have been pressured to enter hiding.
Hasina’s Awami League occasion, which stays banned, says greater than two dozen of its supporters have died in custody over the past one yr.
Human Rights Watch in an announcement on July 30 stated the interim authorities “is falling quick in implementing its difficult human rights agenda.” It stated violations towards ethnic and different minority teams in some components of Bangladesh have continued.
“The interim authorities seems caught, juggling an unreformed safety sector, generally violent spiritual hardliners, and political teams that appear extra centered on extracting vengeance on Hasina’s supporters than defending Bangladeshis’ rights,” stated Ganguly.
Yunus’ workplace routinely rejects these allegations.
Bangladesh additionally faces political uncertainty over a return to democratically held elections.
Yunus has been at loggerheads with the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration, or BNP, now the primary contender for energy. The occasion headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has demanded elections both in December or February subsequent yr. Yunus has stated they may very well be held in April.
The interim authorities has additionally cleared the way in which for the Islamists, who had been underneath extreme stress throughout Hasina’s regime, to rise, whereas the scholar leaders who spearheaded the rebellion have shaped a new political occasion. The scholars’ occasion calls for that the structure be rewritten, if wanted totally, and says it received’t permit the election with out main reforms.
In the meantime, many hardline Islamists have both fled jail or have been launched, and the Jamaat-e-Islami, the nation’s largest Islamist occasion, which has a controversial previous, is now aspiring to a job in authorities. It typically bitterly criticizes the BNP, equating it with Hasina’s Awami League, and just lately held an enormous rally in Dhaka as a present of energy. Critics concern that better affect of the Islamist forces may fragment Bangladesh’s political panorama additional.
“Any rise of Islamists demonstrates a future Bangladesh the place radicalization may get a form the place so-called disciplined Islamist forces may work as a catalyst towards liberal and average forces,” political analyst Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah stated.
Worries additionally stay over whether or not the federal government is in the end able to enacting reforms.
“Folks’s expectation was (that) Yunus authorities can be centered and solely geared in direction of reforming the electoral course of. However now it’s a missed alternative for them,” Kalimullah stated.
For some, not a lot has modified within the final yr.
Meherunnesa’s father, Mosharraf Hossain, stated the rebellion was not for a mere change in authorities, however symbolized deeper frustrations. “We wish a brand new Bangladesh … It’s been 54 years since independence, but freedom was not achieved,” he stated.
Tarif echoed his father’s remarks, including that he was not pleased with the present state of the nation.
“I wish to see the brand new Bangladesh as a spot the place I really feel safe, the place the legislation enforcement companies will carry out their duties correctly, and no authorities will resort to enforced disappearances or killings like earlier than. I wish to have the correct to talk freely,” he stated.
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AP’s video journalist Al emrun Garjon contributed to the story.
