After Sheikh Hasina’s flight, students dream of change

In Dhaka, students are taking to the streets to direct traffic and keep the city running smoothly as police go on strike following the popular uprising that toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The usually highly visible police are invisible on the usually noisy and congested streets of the Bangladeshi capital.

It appears that only students and a few paramilitary forces are trying to maintain public order, after weeks of unrest that left hundreds dead. An interim government has been promised, but it has yet to take office.

Police now fear for their safety after a deadly crackdown that sparked so much anger after failing to quell anti-government protests that began last month over civil service recruitment quotas.

The situation is calmer two days after Ms Hasina fled to India, but reports continue of sporadic looting and violence during the power vacuum.

Many Bangladeshis, especially young people, hope that the country is at a turning point.

“I want freedom of speech. I want a country without corruption. I want people to have the right to protest,” Noorjahan Mily, 21, a student at the Open University, told the BBC.

“I don’t know where the country is going, because the government has changed. But whether discrimination continues or not, I will only be happy when their demands are met.”

The country is now trying to recover from the shock of what just happened, now that power has been wrested from the hands of the country’s long-time leader.

More than 400 people have been killed in the recent unrest, mostly civilians shot dead by security forces but also by several police officers. It is the bloodiest episode since the war that gave the country independence in 1971.

At the airport, an employee handed me my luggage and told me that the situation was very bad and that the government had used too much force.

“Many children – as young as six, seven and eight – have been killed,” he said.

Outside the airport, students wearing high-visibility orange vests directed traffic.

“There is no police here, only students,” the driver said. “There is no government, students provide 100% security.”

He agreed with the students, saying they had done a good deed.

As we drove, a group of students were putting down plastic cones to control the flow of vehicles.

“I am here to protect my brothers and help fight trafficking. From the beginning, I was part of the quota movement which turned into a mass movement,” Julkernayeem Rahat, a business administration student at the University of Asia Pacific, told the BBC.

“We are happy to have overthrown the autocratic government. We have won our freedom and sovereignty.”

He said he was confident that the man appointed as interim leader, Nobel laureate Muhammed Yunus, would be able to form a government within months “with the help of students, lawyers and the people.”

“The future of Bangladesh is in the hands of student leaders. God willing, everything will be fine,” the 22-year-old said.

Mahamudul Hassan, 21, is studying the same course.

“I want a democracy so that people from all walks of life can enjoy equal opportunities and rights.” He hopes for “a leader who can make these things happen.”

Mr Yunus was appointed to the post by the Bangladeshi president on Tuesday night, fulfilling a key demand of student protesters, who have said they will not accept a military-led government. He is now returning from surgery in France and could be sworn in on Thursday.

“I am looking forward to going home and seeing what happens and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the difficult situation we find ourselves in,” he told reporters at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday, where he was due to fly to Dhaka.

Following reports of looting and revenge attacks on Sheikh Hasina’s supporters, he urged people to refrain from any form of violence, warning that failure to do so could result in destruction.

In an address to the nation on Wednesday, the army chief said he was confident that Mr Yunus “will be able to give us a beautiful democratic process and we will benefit from it”.

How things will turn out remains to be seen, but as far as traffic management goes, the students seem to be doing a good job.

The BBC found the situation much smoother than when we visited in January for the controversial elections, boycotted by the main opposition, which gave Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League a fourth term in power.

It almost seemed like business as usual when we saw a group of men pulling large metal rods for a construction project.

“The traffic system is better now. Students are doing well. It’s better than when the police were there,” said Mohammed Shwapan, who has been a driver in Dhaka for 24 years. “Today, there are more people than yesterday.”

He supports the choice of an interim leader.

“As Mr Yunus is well known internationally, he can mitigate any potential economic collapse.

“I am concerned about international debt, Bangladesh’s ability to manage its payments. That’s why I think he can do a good job.”

The challenges ahead are enormous, and not just economic. There are many wounds to heal after Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule ended on Monday.

Her government is credited with carrying out economic reforms that have improved the living standards of many Bangladeshis. But she has also been accused of serious human rights abuses, including numerous extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Many people have stories to tell about what their family has been through.

On the plane to Dhaka, I managed to close my eyes for a few minutes. When I opened them again, I found a handwritten note on a vomit bag found in the back pocket of the seat in front.

On this sheet, someone had written that his father had been killed by Sheikh Hasina and his brother had been abducted. He had gone into voluntary exile for eight years for the safety of his wife and children.

He is now returning to what he calls “a free country” to visit his father’s grave, the note said.