the stuff I’ve read indicated that she was actually quite popular, within the context of the country’s incredibly polarized politics.

Bangladesh has a very poor press freedom ranking and people have been persecuted for posting on social media. My impression is that she was despised, or at best tolerated

Having her toppled by a mob like this… while hoping for the best for Bangladesh, I can’t help but feel quite pessimistic for the future of the country. For one thing, there’s the distinct possibility that this is a military coup disguised as a popular insurrection. Hope that’s not the case.

I would come to the same conclusion if I had not followed this for the past dew weeks. It sounds like a coup from the headline.

I’m cautiously optimistic. The country has a chance for the first time in decades to establish a proper democracy, weed out corruption, and restore press freedoms. Anything can happen in a power vacuum, but I remain hopeful.

Thank you

The resignation was a few hours ago. I would assume that the deaths this article talks about are those from before.

However there is currently a power vacuum and there is a risk of further violence. Many innocent people were killed, and those people might not be happy with the previous government “getting away”

I hope the country finds peace, and finally experiences a proper democracy

I’ve been following it for a few weeks, it was a snowball effect.

• The original protest was met with mockery and ignorance where Hasina called the protestors “rajakars”, which refers to the people who aided Pakistan during the genocide in the 70s. That caused even bigger protests.

• The government’s youth wing/league, likened to a gang or terrorist group, violently beat protestors and killed some. In the chaos, police fired on protestors, drove cars through rickshaws, and started showing up to homes in plainclothes at night arresting students. More happened but this is what I saw videos of. Many more were killed during this time. To slow the spread of news about this, the government shut down the internet. At this point the people wanted her out of power.

• Further growing protests were met with more violence, a curfew, and a shoot on sight order. The youth wing attacked people on the street and police fired at people outside. People were shot at even when standing by the windows or on the rooftops.

All of thus culminated in people flooding to the capital, filling the city centres and Hasina fleeing the country.

While its very likely that opposition party members supported the protests, too much happened for it to be entirely manufactured.

This is common across all cultures, the youth are always called “disrespectful” relative to the older generation.

Access to global media may have caused a more drastic change in some regions

This happened 30 minutes ago and details may change rapidly over the next few hours. See the link above. I’m not in Bangladesh. I hear that people in the country are relieved, and cautiously optimistic.

Key points:

• PM has resigned
• local media reports she fled the country
• protestors stormed her compound
• interim government is being created

Statement by Chief of Army Staff

• representatives from all major parties were present in discussions for interim government
• army will begin investigations on all deaths and crimes during the protest. This should include the extrajudicial killings

Concerns

• fear of violence against the supporters of the ruling party