Bangladesh’s pro-democracy icon who turned an autocrat

[ad_1] Anbarasan Ethirajan and Tessa Wong BBC Information

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/15b1/live/3cf627b0-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/15b1/live/3cf627b0-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/15b1/live/3cf627b0-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/15b1/live/3cf627b0-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/15b1/live/3cf627b0-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/15b1/live/3cf627b0-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/15b1/live/3cf627b0-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/15b1/live/3cf627b0-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Getty Images Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina tours the orchid garden after the orchid naming ceremony at the National Orchid Gardens on March 13, 2018 in Singapore. " class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Pictures Ms Hasina oversaw a metamorphosis in Bangladesh's economic system however critics say she crushed dissent

Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed started her political profession as a pro-democracy icon, however fled mass protests towards her rule in August 2024 after 15 years in energy.

Since then, Hasina has been in self-imposed exile in India, the place she flew after being deposed by the student-led rebellion which spiralled into nationwide unrest.

On 17 November, a particular tribunal in Dhaka sentenced her to dying after convicting her of crimes towards humanity. It was discovered Hasina had ordered a lethal crackdown on protesters between 15 July and 5 August 2024. She denied all fees towards her.

As much as 1,400 individuals have been killed throughout the weeks of protests main as much as her ousting, most by gunfire from safety forces, UN human rights investigators stated. Their report discovered that she and her authorities had tried to cling to energy utilizing systematic, lethal violence towards protesters.

It was the worst bloodshed the nation had seen since independence in 1971.

The protests introduced an sudden finish to the reign of Hasina, who had dominated Bangladesh for greater than 20 years.

She and her Awami League social gathering have been credited with overseeing the South Asian nation's financial progress. However lately she was accused of turning autocratic and clamping down on any opposition to her rule.

Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and different abuses all rose underneath her rule.

An order to 'use deadly weapons'

In January 2024, Hasina received an unprecedented fourth time period as prime minister in an election broadly decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the primary opposition.

Protests started later that yr with a requirement to abolish quotas in civil service jobs. By summer time they'd morphed right into a wider anti-government motion as she used the police to violently crack down on protesters.

Amid rising requires her to resign, Hasina remained defiant and condemned the agitators as “terrorists”. She additionally threw lots of of individuals into jail and introduced prison fees towards lots of extra.

A leaked audio clip instructed she had ordered safety forces to "use deadly weapons" towards protesters. She denies ever issuing an order to fireplace on unarmed civilians.

A few of the bloodiest scenes occurred on 5 August, the day Hasina fled by helicopter earlier than crowds stormed her residence in Dhaka. Police killed at the very least 52 those that day in a busy neighbourhood, making it one of many worst circumstances of police violence within the nation's historical past.

Hasina, who has been tried in absentia, referred to as the tribunal a "farce".

"It's a kangaroo court docket managed by my political opponents to ship a pre-ordained responsible verdict... and to distract the world's consideration from the chaos, violence and misrule of [the new] authorities," she instructed the BBC within the week earlier than her verdict.

She referred to as for the ban on her social gathering to be lifted earlier than elections due in February.

Hasina can be charged with crimes towards humanity regarding compelled disappearances throughout the Awami League's rule in one other case on the identical tribunal in Bangladesh. Hasina and the Awami League deny all the fees.

Hasina and different senior members of her former authorities are additionally going through trial for corruption in a separate court docket - fees they deny.

How did Sheikh Hasina come to energy?

Born to a Muslim household in East Bengal in 1947, Hasina had politics in her blood.

Her father was the nationalist chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's "Father of the Nation" who led the nation's independence from Pakistan in 1971 and have become its first president.

At the moment, Hasina had already established a fame as a scholar chief at Dhaka College.

Her father was assassinated with most of his members of the family in a navy coup in 1975. Solely Hasina and her youthful sister survived as they have been travelling overseas on the time.

After residing in exile in India, Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and have become the chief of the Awami League, the political social gathering her father belonged to.

She joined fingers with different political events to carry pro-democracy avenue protests throughout the navy rule of Basic Hussain Muhammed Ershad. Propelled by the favored rebellion, Hasina rapidly turned a nationwide icon.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/14bf/live/de6ab480-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/14bf/live/de6ab480-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/14bf/live/de6ab480-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/14bf/live/de6ab480-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/14bf/live/de6ab480-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/14bf/live/de6ab480-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/14bf/live/de6ab480-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/14bf/live/de6ab480-52e8-11ef-bbe8-4939b38c4f8f.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images Awami League leader Sheik Hasina Wazed stands above crowds during an election campaign rally, in a picture dated 1991." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Pictures Propelled by the pro-democracy motion within the Eighties and early Nineties, Hasina turned a nationwide icon

She was first elected to energy in 1996. She earned credit score for signing a water-sharing cope with India and a peace cope with tribal insurgents within the south-east of the nation.

However on the identical time, her authorities was criticised for quite a few allegedly corrupt enterprise offers and for being too subservient to India.

She later misplaced to her former ally-turned-nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Get together, in 2001.

As heirs to political dynasties, each girls have dominated Bangladesh politics for greater than three a long time and was generally known as the "battling begums". Begum refers to a Muslim lady of excessive rank.

Observers say their bitter rivalry resulted in bus bombs, disappearances and extrajudicial killings changing into common occurrences.

Hasina finally got here again to energy in 2009 in polls held underneath a caretaker authorities.

A real political survivor, she endured quite a few arrests whereas in opposition in addition to a number of assassination makes an attempt, together with one in 2004 that broken her listening to. She has additionally survived efforts to power her into exile and quite a few court docket circumstances during which she has been accused of corruption.

Achievements and controversies

As soon as one of many world's poorest nations, Bangladesh achieved credible financial success underneath her management from 2009.

Its per capita revenue tripled within the final decade and the World Financial institution estimates that greater than 25 million individuals have been lifted out of poverty within the final 20 years.

A lot of this progress has been fuelled by the garment trade, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of whole exports from Bangladesh and has expanded quickly in latest a long time, supplying markets in Europe, North America and Asia.

Utilizing the nation's personal funds, loans and improvement help, Hasina's authorities additionally undertook big infrastructure initiatives, together with the flagship $2.9bn Padma bridge throughout the Ganges.

However Hasina has lengthy been accused of enacting repressive authoritarian measures towards her political opponents, detractors and the media - a exceptional turnaround for a pacesetter who as soon as fought for multi-party democracy.

Rights teams estimate there have been at the very least 700 circumstances of enforced disappearances, with lots of extra topic to extra-judicial killings, since Hasina took energy once more in 2009. Hasina denies involvement in these.

Bangladesh's safety forces have additionally been accused of significant abuses. In 2021, the US sanctioned its Speedy Motion Battalion - a infamous police unit accused of finishing up quite a few extra-judicial killings - citing human rights violations.

Human rights activists and journalists additionally confronted rising assaults together with arrests, surveillance and harassment.

Hasina's authorities was additionally accused of "judicially harassing" targets with court docket circumstances, together with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus - who turned head of the interim authorities after Hasina fled. He had been jailed earlier in 2024 and confronted greater than 100 fees, in circumstances his supporters say have been politically motivated.

Hasina's authorities flatly denied claims of such abuses, whereas additionally limiting visits when it was in energy by international journalists searching for to analyze the allegations.

The protests towards civil service quotas, which sparked final yr's rebellion, got here as Bangladesh struggled with the escalating prices of residing within the wake of the pandemic. Inflation skyrocketed, the nation's international trade reserves dropped precipitously, and its international debt doubled since 2016.

Critics blamed this on mismanagement by Hasina's authorities, claiming that Bangladesh's financial progress solely helped these near her.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/fbc6/live/91ea46e0-c072-11f0-b95f-c7c5e73ea311.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/fbc6/live/91ea46e0-c072-11f0-b95f-c7c5e73ea311.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/fbc6/live/91ea46e0-c072-11f0-b95f-c7c5e73ea311.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/fbc6/live/91ea46e0-c072-11f0-b95f-c7c5e73ea311.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/fbc6/live/91ea46e0-c072-11f0-b95f-c7c5e73ea311.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/fbc6/live/91ea46e0-c072-11f0-b95f-c7c5e73ea311.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/fbc6/live/91ea46e0-c072-11f0-b95f-c7c5e73ea311.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/fbc6/live/91ea46e0-c072-11f0-b95f-c7c5e73ea311.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images Bangladeshis wave the national flag 5 August, 2025 as they celebrate one year since Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Pictures Bangladeshis wave the nationwide flag on 5 August, 2025 as they have fun one yr since Sheikh Hasina was ousted from energy