Date: 2025-01-04 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027453
BANGLADESH
PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH HASINA FLEES
NYT: Bangladesh’s Leader Fled Just Ahead of an Angry Crowd, Urged by Family to Go
PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH HASINA FLEES
NYT: Bangladesh’s Leader Fled Just Ahead of an Angry Crowd, Urged by Family to Go
Original article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/world/asia/bangladesh-hasina-final-hours.html
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
As masses of people converged, angry at the killing of protesters, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina insisted that she could hold on, which military leaders said would mean spilling far more blood.
A poster of the Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina with large holes in it. A vandalized image of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the aftermath of her hasty departure from Bangladesh.Credit...Monirul Alam/EPA, via Shutterstock
By Mujib MashalShayeza Walid and Saif Hasnat ... Mujib Mashal reported from New Delhi, and Shayeza Walid and Saif Hasnat from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Aug. 6, 2024
The protesters were closing in.
A convoy of about a dozen vehicles carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh out of her sprawling official residence tried at first to escape through the usual gate, then spun around and took a different route — and still found itself facing a crowd of demonstrators.
Thousands had defied a curfew, pushed through police barricades and poured into the heart of the capital, Dhaka, enraged by the killing of nearly 100 protesters the day before.
Ms. Hasina’s security detail appealed for reinforcements. Armored vehicles rushed to clear a path, and her car sped to a helipad. A helicopter whisked her to an airfield, where she boarded the military plane that would take her out of the country.
In her chaotic final hours on Monday as Bangladesh’s leader — recounted in conversations with nearly a dozen diplomatic, security and government officials, some of whom were caught in its panic — Ms. Hasina clung to the idea that she could hold out against the throng converging on her. According to three people with knowledge of the discussions, she resisted the advice of her security chiefs, who told her that their crackdown on antigovernment protests had failed after claiming some 300 lives over a few weeks, that trying to suppress them would require much more bloodshed.
Her decision to let go after 15 years in office, and to make what appears to have been a hastily arranged escape to India, did not ultimately come because of international pressure or a diplomatic push. Instead, according to security officials and diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate matter, her top security advisers appealed to her closest family members to persuade her that it was the end.
Image An aerial view shows anti-government protesters storming Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s palace.
On Monday, hundreds of thousands of protesters streamed into Dhaka and many closed in around the prime minister’s residence. Credit...Parvez Ahmad Rony/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “At very short notice, she requested approval to come for the moment to India,” India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, told the Parliament on Tuesday.
Bangladesh now is gripped by political uncertainty. Ms. Hasina had amassed unrivaled, increasingly autocratic power, and her departure leaves an enormous vacuum. The president, who largely holds a ceremonial role, on Tuesday appointed the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to form an interim government, but it remains unclear who will take part in it, what authority it will wield or what role the military might play.
The army chief announced Ms. Hasina’s departure on Monday afternoon and said she had resigned, but so far no written resignation has been made public, and neither she nor her political party has commented. That silence, and reports that her plan to fly from India to London had been delayed by paperwork hiccups, has left some diplomats to wonder whether she is remaining close to home because she still harbors hopes of a return.
The army, which has promised to oversee the installation of an interim government, is struggling to contain the chaos on the streets. After Ms. Hasina’s flight on Monday, the police presence in the streets melted away and there was widespread looting, arson and revenge-taking that left dozens dead. Law enforcement officers, seen as an overzealous extension of her authority, were the targets of many attacks.
Late on Monday, protesters surrounded the international airport in Dhaka, in what diplomats said was an attempt to prevent Ms. Hasina’s officials from fleeing the country. The airport remained shut and out of operation for at least six hours. When it reopened on Tuesday, there were reports of at least two cabinet ministers being stopped from boarding flights and taken to detention.
Considering how thoroughly she had centralized power in her own hands, Ms. Hasina’s unraveling was swift — and largely of her own doing, critics said.
Image Soldiers clear an entrance of the Bangladeshi prime minister’s residence. Soldiers clearing debris in front of an entrance to the prime minister’s residence on Tuesday. Credit...Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
Student protests over a preferential quota system to give half of government jobs to specific groups had carried on for weeks peacefully, with little sign of loosening her grip on power. But the situation turned chaotic after Ms. Hasina unleased the aggressive youth wing of her party on the protesters, followed by a crackdown by all shades of security forces. What had been demonstrations became street battles, and the crowds were growing.
More than 200 people were killed in late July protests. She announced a curfew and shut down the internet as law enforcement swept more than 10,000 people into jails, and charged tens of thousands of others with crimes.
When the restrictions eased last week, the movement turned into a call for justice for the killings. The protesters, while ratcheting up their demands, still stopped short of demanding Ms. Hasina’s ouster. Her supporters, particularly officials in India, which enjoyed close ties with her, were optimistic that she would survive the moment.
On Sunday, all that changed, as protesters turned out in their largest numbers since the demonstrations began. Government forces responded with more violence than they had used before, making it the deadliest single day, with about 100 killed.
By nightfall, a dangerous showdown was set up: Protesters demanded her resignation, and called for a march on Dhaka. She promised an “iron hand” response to what she described as anarchism.
Publicly, Monday morning started with all the signs of official defiance: Another internet shutdown, heavy security presence on the streets and barriers to keep protesters from moving toward the city center.
But behind the scenes, the conversation had shifted.
Image People carrying a monitor, a computer and a duck through water. After Ms. Hasina’s flight on Monday, the police presence in the streets melted away and there was widespread looting, arson and revenge-taking that left dozens dead.Credit...Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
When Ms. Hasina’s security chiefs — the heads of the army, police, air force and navy — arrived at her residence midmorning, she met them along with her sister, Sheikh Rehana, who lives in London and had arrived just days earlier to visit. The two women were the only members of their family to survive the 1975 coup that killed their father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding leader.
Ms. Hasina insisted on beating back the protests, the people familiar with the conversations said. She held up the police’s performance as something the other forces should emulate. But her chiefs made clear that would be impossible. The numbers streaming into the city were in the hundreds of thousands. Many were already getting close to the neighborhood around her residence. To protect her would require carnage, and even then they weren’t sure they could repel crowds so big.
When Ms. Hasina still pushed back, her sister asked to speak to her privately. When they returned about 20 minutes later from a side room, the prime minister was quiet, but still reluctant. The army chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, who is related to Ms. Hasina by marriage, then dialed up her son, Sajeeb Wazed, who lives in Virginia, and asked for his help in getting his mother to accept the gravity of her situation.
The general passed the phone to the prime minister, and as he and the other military leaders watched, Ms. Hasina listened silently to her son. Then she nodded.
“She wanted to stay, she did not want to leave the country at all,” Mr. Wazed later told Indian news channels. “We were concerned for her physical safety first. So we persuaded her to leave.”
The generals estimated that she had less than an hour to get out.
Ms. Hasina and her sister descended from her upstairs quarters around 1 p.m., Ms. Rehana carrying a large photo frame tucked under her arm. Aides on the ground floor were preparing for a televised address they were told the prime minister wanted to make.
Image A large gate on a road is blocked off by orange blockades. An entry gate to India’s Hindan Air Force Station in Ghaziabad, India, where Ms. Hasina landed on Monday.Credit...Priyanshu Singh/Reuters
But confusion took over. The live broadcast truck that was meant to come to Ms. Hasina’s address had actually gone to the army chief’s headquarters, a sign that the power had shifted. Members of her staff watched as Ms. Hasina was quickly ushered into her vehicle before the convoy set off into a city already being overrun.
When television stations announced that the army chief would make an important address to the nation after hours of silence from the prime minister, the protesters sensed it was her end.
Yet the address was delayed, hour after hour. One senior diplomat said it was likely because the generals just weren’t sure she would follow through until her aircraft had actually taken off. The army chief then held hasty meetings with members of the opposition parties, including one Ms. Hasina had banned just days earlier, before announcing the end of her rule and the promise of an interim government.
“I promise you that we will bring justice for all murders and wrongdoings,” he said. “I promise that you won’t be disappointed.”
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