A police officer stands guard at the National Martyrs’ Memorial before the arrival of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting chairman Tarique Rahman in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, on December 26, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Dhaka:

Bangladeshi police resumed patrols of the capital Dhaka on Monday, ending a weeklong strike that left a law and order vacuum following the abrupt ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina.

Officers vanished from the streets of the sprawling megacity of 20 million people last week after Hasina’s resignation and flight abroad ended her 15-year rule.

Police were loathed for spearheading a lethal crackdown on the weeks of protests that forced her departure, with 42 officers among the more than 450 people killed.

Police had vowed not to resume work until their safety on duty was guaranteed, but they agreed to return after late-night talks with the new interim government, helmed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

“The police association ended its strike last night,” the force’s national spokesperson Enamul Haque Sagor told AFP.

“Police officers have returned to work today,” he added. “You can see them managing traffic in Dhaka’s streets.”

‘Heinous attacks’

Student-led protests against Hasina’s government had been largely peaceful until police attempted to violently disperse them.

Around 450 of the country’s 600 police stations were targeted in arson and vandalism attacks over the past month, according to the national police union.

Some began reopening late last week under guard by the army, an institution held in higher esteem for largely refusing to participate in the crackdown.

In the police’s absence, the students who led the protests that toppled Hasina volunteered to restore law and order after looting and reprisal attacks in the hours after her departure.

They acted as traffic wardens, formed overnight neighbourhood watch patrols and guarded Hindu temples and other places of worship, quickly settling the unrest.

Yunus’s “council of advisors”, the de facto cabinet now administering the country, said it had noted with “grave concern” some attacks on Hindus and other minorities.

In its first official statement on Sunday night, the cabinet said it would work to “find ways to resolve such heinous attacks”.

Bangladeshi Hindus account for around eight percent of the country’s 170 million people and have regularly been the targets of violence during periods of upheaval.

Hundreds have arrived on India’s border since last week, asking to cross.

Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India a week ago as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted tenure.

Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Dhaka, Bangladesh:

Bangladeshi students battled police for control of the streets and won, but if their country is to embark on a new journey, someone has to clear the road ahead.

Gridlock is a fact of life in the capital Dhaka, a megacity of 20 million which relies on a corps of police wardens to clear long snarls of cars and pedal rickshaws through intersections.

With officers on strike after the resignation of ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, the students who forced her ouster have stepped up to do the job themselves.

“Our country can’t remain in a standstill,” Nasrin Akter Koly, 21, told AFP.

“We clashed with the police, that’s why the police are not on duty,” she added. “So instead of the police, our people must do the work.”

Traffic control is a humdrum job at the best of times and many of Dhaka’s usual wardens are known for a casual indifference to aggressive drivers zooming by out of turn.

But Koly and her classmates have brought a new enthusiasm to the vocation as they wave through cars at one of the downtown business district’s busiest crossroads.

Drivers are in turn treating the volunteers with respect.

Nearly all are stopping on command and heeding polite but firm directions to fasten their seatbelts — the kind of minor traffic infraction that would have previously been ignored.

“After a revolution, every country faces some difficulties,” said Nahid Kalam Nabil, 22, while directing traffic alongside Koly.

“The students are handling the situation now, and they will keep the country safe,” he added.

‘Teaching the people’

More than 450 people were killed during weeks of clashes between protesters and security forces before Hasina quit and fled to India on Monday.

Protests had been largely peaceful until police attempted to violently disperse them, setting in motion the chain of events that led to the end of Hasina’s iron-fisted 15-year tenure.

Dozens of police officers were killed in the unrest, according to police and hospital figures given to AFP.

After her departure, vandalism and arson attacks hit roughly 450 of the country’s 600 police stations, according to the force.

Police unions declared a national strike on Tuesday “until the security” of officers was assured, and a new police chief apologised for the conduct of officers under his sacked predecessor.

Unrest has since subsided, thanks in part to students volunteering for neighbourhood watch patrols and guarding houses of worship for minority religions, which were subjected to isolated looting attacks.

“They are safeguarding the houses at night, they are safeguarding the mosques, temples and churches,” Nabil said.

“They are teaching the people law and order. They are designing the country in a new way.”

Many police officers began returning to work Friday with soldiers — held in high esteem for not intervening on Hasina’s side during the unrest — standing guard.

Farida Akhter, a member of the interim government tasked with steering democratic reforms, told AFP that restoring law and order was the “first priority” of the new dispensation.

The sudden collapse of Hasina’s administration left a gaping vacuum in political administration, with many civil servants staying home waiting for the dust to settle.

The city government in Dhaka has also laid low, prompting other student volunteers to take on its duties.

“With this students’ protest, we have made a fascist regime fall,” 20-year-old Samanjar Chowdhury Mrittika told AFP while wielding a broom to sweep up garbage from a downtown sidewalk.

“The country is not in a good condition,” she added. “Someone must take responsibility.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A student volunteer controls traffic, in the absence of traffic policemen on a street in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
| Photo Credit: AP

Students carried out traffic management as volunteers for the second consecutive day on Wednesday (August 7, 2024) in Bangladesh, as a top police official called on every member of the police force to resume their duties gradually and maintain law and order.

“Chaos reigned supreme in Bangladesh after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on Monday (August 5, 2024), with police absent from their duty to keep law and order or manage traffic,” local media reports said.

Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) A. K. M. Shahidur Rahman, who was appointed as the focal person of the Bangladesh Police on Tuesday (August 6, 2024) to handle the current crisis, called on every member of the police force to resume their duties gradually and maintain public safety and law and order.

The students, including members of Bangladesh Scouts, were seen controlling the traffic movement at several places, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported. 

“The police are friends of the people and work for the public. We cannot imagine a society without the police. Therefore, I request our police members once again to ignore rumours and return to their duties in a phased manner, ensuring that security arrangements are properly in place,” said Mr. Rahman, who has now been appointed as the Director General of RAB in a fresh reshuffle on Wednesday (August 7, 2024).

“There were reports of attacks on police stations and facilities across the country on Tuesday (August 6, 2024), resulting in numerous police casualties, which have led to this unprecedented situation,” the newspaper said.

The authorities reconstituted the top positions of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) on Wednesday (August 7, 2024). “AKM Shahidur Rahman has been appointed as Director General of RAB while Md Mainul Hasan will replace Habibur Rahman as the commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police,” news portal Prothom Alo said.

The reshuffle comes hours after President Mohammed Shahabuddin appointed Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus as the head of an interim government on Tuesday (August 6, 2024) night.

Attorney General Advocate Abu Mohammad Amin Uddin, who was appointed in October 2020, resigned on Wednesday (August 7, 2024).

Meanwhile, businesses on Wednesday (August 7, 2024) demanded immediate restoration of law and order to ensure the safety of their production units amid incidents of arson attacks on factories over the last two days.

They said they opened factories today, particularly the garment units, but many cannot run properly fearing unrest and vandalism, the Daily Star newspaper reported, citing a press conference by the International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICC-B).

“Six top officials of Bangladesh Bank including Deputy Governor Kazi Sayedur Rahman resigned as unrest erupted at Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday (August 7, 2024), the second day after offices reopened,” the Dhaka Tribune reported.

It said that more than a hundred officials of Bangladesh Bank stormed the bank governor’s office, forcing several deputy governors to leave the office claiming the duo was helping the bank looters.

Bodies of at least 29 supporters of Hasina’s Awami League party were recovered across the country through Tuesday (August 6, 2024), taking the overall death toll to 469 in almost three weeks since the protest first started in July over a quota system in government jobs.

Media reports also flagged more and more cases of violence against minorities surfacing through Tuesday (August 6, 2024), prominent among them being the massive vandalism and destruction at popular folk band Joler Gaan’s frontman Rahul Ananda’s residence on Monday (August 7, 2024) prompting the singer and his family to take shelter at a secret place.

The Daily Star quoted Saiful Islam Jarnal, one of Joler Gaan’s founding members who described that the mob after broking the main gate, started ravaging the house taking whatever they could find for themselves – from furniture, mirrors to valuables and then torched the whole house along with Rahul Anand’s over 3,000 musical instruments, which he designed and made over the years.

University students shout slogans during a protest to demand justice for the victims killed in the recent countrywide deadly clashes and ask for their campuses to be opened, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, July 31, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Police in Bangladesh fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse people who were demonstrating on July 31 against the excessive use of force by authorities during protests earlier in July that left at least 150 dead.

The unrest is the biggest test facing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 76, since she won a fourth term in January elections boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which were also marred by deadly protests.

Ms. Hasina on July 31 sought cooperation from the United Nations and other international organisations to conduct a proper investigation into the recent nationwide violence during the anti-quota agitation to punish the real culprits involved in the attacks.

“We’re seeking UN and other international organisations’ cooperation for a fair and proper investigation into the matter,” Hasina said, adding that the people involved in the violence must be brought to justice.

“Because I know I have no negligence to this end,” she was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper.

Speaking at an event, she came down heavily on those who were involved in damaging public properties alongside killing many people and thus tarnishing the country’s image.

Police said they used force on July 31 when people in the northeastern district of Sylhet broke through barricades to march towards for the courts.

“We requested the protesters to move from the road, but they didn’t listen and instead attacked the police, forcing us to disperse them with tear gas and stun grenades,” said regional deputy commissioner Azbahar Ali Sheikh.

Police and protesters scuffled in Dhaka, the capital, and the southern port city of Chittagong, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear if there were any fatalities.

At least 10 persons, including four journalists, were injured in southern Barishal district, where police used batons to disperse protesters.

Police detained at least seven students in Dhaka near the high court, where lawyers and university teachers joined the demonstrators.

MARCH CALLED BY STUDENT GROUP

Wednesday’s nationwide “March for Justice” was called by the Students Against Discrimination group that was at the forefront of protests against quotas in government jobs.

That initial unrest earlier in July left thousands wounded as security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse those gathered.

Although the students agreed to halt their protest after the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas on July 21, they returned recently to the streets to call out the dozens of deaths, arrests, and government intimidation.

“We will also demand a United Nations investigation into the violence,” Mohammad Mahin Sarkar, a coordinator of the movement, said in a statement.

International rights groups have condemned close to 10,000 arrests over the past two weeks on charges of involvement in clashes and destruction of government property.

They say Ms. Hasina has become increasingly autocratic during her last 15 years in power, which have been marked by arrests of political opponents and activists, allegations she denies.

Ms. Hasina, at an event in Dhaka, said Bangladesh had appealed to the United Nations and various international bodies for help

Bangladesh shut down the internet after the earlier unrest and imposed a nationwide curfew as the protests, which began in educational institutions in June, became more widespread.

JAMAAT BAN

Ms. Hasina’s government said it was set to ban the main Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and its student wing, both of which Dhaka blames for violence during the protests.

Dhaka has set up a judicial inquiry to investigate the violence, Law Minister Anisul Huq told Reuters.

In a statement, Jamaat condemned the proposed ban as “illegal, extrajudicial and unconstitutional.”

The party’s chief Shafiqur Rahman, along with the opposition, have denied they had stoked the violence.

Jamaat was effectively barred from elections after a court said in 2013 its registration as a political party conflicted with Bangladesh’s secular constitution.

The United Nations, global rights groups, the United States and Britain criticised Dhaka’s use of force against the demonstrators, asking it to uphold the right to peaceful protest.

Kolkata:

A Bangladesh police team, which arrived here on Sunday afternoon, said they will seek cooperation from West Bengal CID and conduct a thorough probe into the murder of MP Anwarul Azim Anar.

The team expressed its desire to interrogate the arrested suspects and visit Baranagar, where Anar resided, along with speaking to the MP’s friend and the landlord of the house where he stayed.

Speaking to PTI anonymously, a senior state CID officer affirmed their readiness to assist the Bangladesh detectives in every possible way. He said all evidence gathered by the state CID regarding the case would be shared with them.

The search for the missing MP began when Gopal Biswas, a resident of Baranagar and an acquaintance of Anar, lodged a complaint with local police on May 18, stating that Anar, who arrived in Kolkata on May 12 for medical treatment, had gone missing.

According to Biswas, Anar left his residence in Baranagar for a doctor’s appointment on May 13, assuring that he would return home for dinner. However, he became unreachable on May 17, prompting Biswas to file a missing complaint the following day.

According to Kolkata Police, circumstantial evidence indicated that the MP was first strangled and killed after which his body was chopped into pieces and dumped in different areas. Traces of his body or body parts are yet to be found. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)