Bangladesh Situation Explained

Tareekh ki duniya

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned amid violent protests in the country. An interim government is taking over, Bangladesh Army Chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman announced on Monday. But why has anger against Sheikh Hasina been increasing in Bangladesh?  #bangladeshcrisis #sheikhhasina #bangladeshprotest #bangladeshupdate #bangladeshnews

Transcript

00:00Bangladesh's police and army are after the students.

00:04Sometimes police vans pass over the students,

00:08sometimes helicopters are seen landing on the university's rooftops.

00:12Thousands of students are seen protesting on the streets,

00:16sometimes rallies are held, sometimes protest marches.

00:20Gradually, the students' movement spread so much

00:23that they were forced to block roads, highways and the railway system.

00:28The situation got to the point where the government of Bangladesh

00:32not only put the police but also the army against the students.

00:36Local media was not reporting anything anyway.

00:39On top of that, the internet, social media and whatsapp were blocked

00:44and curfews were imposed in important areas.

00:47And the curfew was not just that, but a shoot at sight.

00:51In many places, direct bullets were fired at the students.

00:56More than 200 students were killed, thousands were injured

01:00and countless students were arrested.

01:03Along with all this, due to the shutdown of the country for so many days,

01:07Bangladesh has lost more than $2 billion.

01:11After all this, the only question in everyone's mind is

01:16why is all this happening in Bangladesh?

01:19All this started on 5th June 2024 after a High Court decision

01:25when they re-exposed the quota system in Bangladesh Civil Services.

01:31In the beginning, some peaceful protests were seen,

01:34but after that, Eid holidays were due,

01:36so protests throughout the country were postponed.

01:40After Eid, students started protesting again,

01:43and this time it was a little more serious.

01:46They blocked roads and expressed a demand to end the quota system.

01:51Although the purpose of the protest was to end the quota system,

01:54but as time went on, many more reasons were included.

01:58There is a government of the Awami League Party in Bangladesh,

02:01and there is a student wing of this party, which is called the Shatra League.

02:06Members of the Shatra League attacked the protesting students in many places,

02:11and that too with the support of the police.

02:14In this matter, students who were protesting against the quota system,

02:19a wave of anger broke out in them.

02:21In addition, in many places, the army used UN vehicles against the protesters,

02:28which made it seem that the United Nations was involved in all this.

02:32When this news went on international media,

02:35the whole world had a bad impression of the United Nations.

02:39And the UN asked Bangladesh for a reason to do this.

02:43It turned out that some vehicles had been rented to the UN mission,

02:46but the logo had not been removed from them.

02:49The anger of the protesters did not stop until on 14 July 2024,

02:54the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina gave some remarks,

02:58which made the matter even more serious.

03:01He said that if freedom fighters are not given a quota in jobs,

03:05will they be given to volunteers?

03:07The Prime Minister's statement was like a fire.

03:11But you will understand the real value of this statement

03:15when you know about freedom fighters and volunteers.

03:19As you know, Bangladesh used to be part of Pakistan before 1971.

03:25At that time it was called East Pakistan,

03:27while today's Pakistan was called West Pakistan.

03:30East and West Pakistan were divided by India.

03:34There was a lot of distance between the two,

03:37and many differences were found between the two,

03:41in which the language difference was the biggest.

03:44In East Pakistan, that is, Bangladesh,

03:47Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's public league had a lot of hold,

03:51while in West Pakistan there were different political parties.

03:55At that time, there was a martial law in Pakistan,

03:58and General Yahya Khan, who was the Chief Martial Law Administrator at that time,

04:02was responsible for holding general elections in Pakistan.

04:06In these elections, East Pakistan's public league was very successful,

04:10which swept 167 seats out of 169 seats in East Pakistan.

04:17Now the total seats of the National Assembly of Pakistan were only 300,

04:21of which 167, i.e. more than half the seats,

04:25East Pakistan's public league had taken,

04:28which meant that the public league could easily form its government

04:32in the National Assembly of Pakistan.

04:35But the military leadership at that time did not want this,

04:38which led to a civil disobedience movement in East Pakistan.

04:43On March 7, 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave a sign to be separated from Pakistan in his speech,

04:51and on March 23, the first Bangladeshi flag was hoisted on many houses in East Pakistan.

04:57As a result, a military operation was launched in East Pakistan,

05:02whose aim was to stop East Pakistan from separating from West Pakistan.

05:07This war for Bangladesh's freedom continued for the next nine months,

05:12in which some units of the military in East Pakistan separated from Pakistan

05:17and formed their own force to gain freedom,

05:20which is also known as the Bangladesh Forces, Mukti Bahini, or Freedom Fighters.

05:25On the other hand, the group in Bangladesh that supported West Pakistan is called Razakar.

05:32In the last two weeks of this war, Bangladesh also gained support from India,

05:37and thus East Pakistan separated from the West and became Bangladesh.

05:41Now, because Bangladesh was liberated with the help of Freedom Fighters,

05:45Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who had become the President of Bangladesh,

05:49kept a separate 30% quota for Freedom Fighters in the Bangladesh Civil Services.

05:55In 1997, that is, 26 years after the Liberation War,

06:00the recruitment of Freedom Fighters in the Bangladesh Civil Services decreased significantly,

06:05due to which the government increased this quota not only for Freedom Fighters, but also for their children.

06:11And then in 2010, the quota for Freedom Fighters was also made eligible for their grandchildren.

06:18But despite this, only 10% of the Freedom Fighters' generation was taking this quota,

06:23and the rest of the quota was wasted.

06:26Now, in the whole country, those who want to work hard on merit and get a job in the civil services,

06:31their quota was 44%, and that too is now decreasing.

06:36So this thing seems very bad to the students,

06:39that even after working so hard, we cannot even come in the 44% quota of merit.

06:45Whereas the family of Freedom Fighters can easily get a government job without doing anything.

06:51On 8 March 2018, a petition was filed against the quota system in the Bangladesh High Court,

06:57which was rejected by the court.

06:59At that time, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that she personally wanted to keep a quota for the family of Freedom Fighters,

07:06on which the students protested against the quota system.

07:11She said that either the quota of Freedom Fighters should be merged into the quota of merit,

07:17or the quota of Freedom Fighters should be reduced.

07:20On this, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued an executive order,

07:24and terminated the quota system from Bangladesh Civil Services.

07:29It remained silent for the next few years,

07:31but then suddenly the Bangladesh High Court cancelled Sheikh Hasina's executive order on 5 June 2024,

07:39and revoked the quota system again.

07:42And from here, the protests started again.

07:45When the situation got out of hand,

07:48on 21 July 2024, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh passed an order to change the quota system.

07:56In that order, 93% quota was given for merit, which was previously 44%.

08:03And the quota of Freedom Fighters, which was previously 30%, was reduced to 5%.

08:091% for minorities and 1% for disabled people.

08:14After this order, the students decided to end the protest on this condition only,

08:19that their arrested colleagues should be released,

08:22and the government officials in the areas where the students were killed should resign.

08:27Till the time this video is being made, the students' demands have not been met.

08:32But the government believes that the situation is under control to a large extent.

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